I am a Reject
by xXStormy-SanXx
Summary: What if it hadn't been Tohru Honda? What if Yuki & Shigure never found Tohru in her tent in the woods? What if she had hid there until she returned to her grandfather's house & no one was the wiser? What if someone a little more outspoken & a little less nice happened to catch the hearts of the most fawned over boys in Kaibara High School?
1. Chapter 1

Yes, I've considered it. Who hasn't? I would never do it, but sometimes suicide sounds like a perfect release. Reality is, it's the most selfish thing a person can possibly do; free yourself from pain but cause immense pain for others.

For me, this isn't exactly the case. There aren't a whole lot of people who would miss me. My dad left before I was born, and my mother's always blamed me for his disappearing act. I've had a tendency to repel people all my life, whether it's on purpose or not. Not many people like being near me in general, so therefore, there are few people who would miss me.

My cousin, Tessa Malin, in America would miss me, but I don't get to see her too often. Her parents think I'm a bit of a bad influence on her, when I'm actually a positive role-model for her. Tessa's a bit of a loose-cannon, and too spontaneous for her own good, so when her creepy-ass boyfriend, Thomas, tried to get her to try smoking a joint, I _kinda_ kicked his ass. Luckily, he was too intimidated to try again, or to call the cops. They broke up the next day, which is when I had to return to Japan from my visit, so I'm hoping I won't have to do it again.

My friends, Hikari and Hikaru Sasaki, Rin Fujioka, and Maiko Ijuin, would miss me too. I would definitely miss them; I couldn't imagine never hearing Hikari and Hikaru babble like the little birds that live in the trees outside my house, constantly talking about crazy stuff like how they're always "Twinning for the win!" or how "Astoundimagical!" or "Kawaii!" something is. And then there's Rin, she tends to be quiet, and some people would call her cold, or severe, but I like to think of her as dignified. I remember when we were younger when a boy named Shika called her a demon, just because she wasn't Christian like he was, and doesn't attend church; to say it simply, Rin is a genius, she always has been, and it showed when she responded by quoting, "'Thus says a man who admits to worshipping a god who vilifies pleasure, relegates women to roles that are little more than servants and broodmares, though they are the backbone of your church, and seeks to control his worshippers through guilt and fear,'" from P. C. Cast. The boys face was one thing: perfection. He was literally stunned silent with his mouth agape. "You better close your mouth or you're gonna catch flies," Hikari and Hikaru added, green eyes glinting, and finally snapping Shika out of it. He simply glared and walked away, our laughter trailing after him like words from an authors mind, even though he obviously wasn't bright enough to have a mind, since he tried to mess with Rin. And last but not least, was Maiko; our nickname for her is Tiny Dancer, since she's only 4'11", but she could be a prima ballerina if she wanted to. She's won the talent show every year in middle school, but stopped doing it, "to give other kids a chance," yeah she's kinda arrogant, but she's not like that all the time; she cries every time she see's those commercials about adopting a rescue animal, and can't resist giving change to people on the street.

This leaves one person left who would miss me.

_Me._

I would miss me. I would miss being with my friends, I would miss Tessa calling me at four AM because it's only noon of the previous day where she is. I would miss staring at cute guys and talking about it at lunch, and Hikaru threatening to go and tell said cute guy what I said, and me punching his arm. I would miss all of it.

Which is exactly why I don't kill myself; exactly why I haven't just ended myself to avoid every beating from my mother which I am sure will come. And because of said reasons, it's exactly why I met them.


	2. Chapter 2

A.N. I wanted to say that the Rin mentioned in this story isn't the same Rin that's in the magna. I just recently realized that there is one in the magna because I've only seen the anime, but I'm going to keep the name because I selected it for a reason.

Kaibara High School; home of some of the most hateful teachers in the world, and the world's stupidest club; the Prince Yuki Fan Club. I swear, he's kinda cute and all, but who cares? Lots of guys are cute; you don't see a Hikaru Sasaki Fan Club running around. No, I don't have a crush on Hikaru, but he would definitely fall under the category of 'attractive;' he's kinda muscle-y, but not overly ripped like some guys strive to be, and he's cocky at times, but in an entertaining way, and he definitely isn't the kind of jerk who would be mean to anyone, no matter how hateful they were toward him; that is, unless they made fun of Hikari. If they made fun of Hikari, he would pound their face in so fast they wouldn't have time to say 'mercy.' Twins don't take things lightly when it comes to their twin.

Still, there are plenty of attractive guys here, like the new first year, Hatsuharu Sohma; he's pretty cute in his own way, yet, no Hatsuharu Fan Club in sight. As I was thinking about this while zoning out after a few seconds of the twins babble, when I ran into someone. I'd never seen him before, which was strange, since I knew most of the people in the school, even though most of them had never noticed my existence.

I looked up and was about to apologize when I saw the panicked expression that covered his face like a mask as he completely tensed up, as if he expected to explode or something. It was kinda hard not to laugh because he looked so panicked; it was practically comical, with his orange hair sticking out all over his head, and his copper-brown eyes almost the size of saucers.

"I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going! My bad," I stuck out a hand. His expression went from panicked to shock to completely confused. He ignored my outstretched hand and just looked at me.

"Yeah, whatever. Watch where you're goin' next time, will ya?" he said, and finally seemed to notice my hand which was still stuck in his direction.

"I will. I'm Arisu Takahashi. And you are…?" I questioned, shaking his hand.

"Kyo Sohma." He then turned around like I was never there, which kinda pissed me off, but then I noticed who he was talking (actually, it looked more like arguing) with; the beloved Prince Yuki Sohma! Notice my sarcasm?

I wonder if they're related. Sohma isn't an _un_common name… I thought, as I walked away toward my class and the ever-hateful Ms. Kurosawa.

I couldn't tell you why Ms. Kurosawa (A. K. A. Ms. Hateful) hates me if I tried. Ever since the beginning of the year, she's been giving me the stink-eye and doing everything in her power to make me go insane. Sometimes, she's told me to stay after because she wants to talk to me, then makes me wait until the next class has already started, then asks why I'm just standing there, and won't write me a note for my next class. Luckily, my next teacher understands what a bitch Ms. Kurosawa is. Mr. Johnson was a teacher who had transferred here from America for two years. He seemed to catch on to what people were like pretty quickly. He's also one of the few people who I don't repel, so he's quickly become one of my favorite teachers; not only because he's nice to me, but because of him, I'm able to communicate with Tessa better (did I mention he teaches American English?).

Any who, as I ducked in Ms. Hateful's classroom, managing to go unnoticed by her demon-glare, I quickly sat down, just in time to see the Kyo and Yuki walk in together. I wasn't surprised to see Yuki, I've been in this class with him all year; it was his friend Kyo who I was surprised to see. Now that I actually had a chance to look at him without worrying about apologizing, he was pretty cute, even more so than Yuki.

_Hmm… I may have to do something about that_, I joked. Like that would happen! No guy would be interested in me. It's not cause I'm ugly or anything (I don't think I am), but like I said earlier, I tend to repel people. I doubt it's because of how I look; I have black, slightly A-lined hair, with a splattering of sky blue on the front of my bangs. Tessa says my hair is styled exactly like someone named Keri Hilson. I don't really know who that is, but I didn't really want to ask, or I'd probably get a lecture on American pop-culture.

While I was wrapped up in my thoughts, I didn't even notice who just so happened to be walking my way.

"Hey, this seat taken?" I looked up into the face of Kyo. I realized he was gesturing to the seat in front of me.

"Oh! No. Go ahead," I responded; trying to ignore the death glares I received from half the girls in the room, since Yuki was right next to him. As Kyo took the seat in front of me, and Yuki took the one next to him, a certain pair of twins crept up behind me and whispered in my ears.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" I tensed at the unexpected breath on the sides of my face, as the twins took seats on either side of me.

Once class started, they both passed me identical notes with identical hand writing:

_Spill…_

_His name is Kyo Sohma and he asked if the seat was taken, I said no go ahead, he sat there, and Yuki sat next to him. THE END._ I sent back to both of them. I actually got different replies from them.

_He's cute! :)_ Replied Hikari.

_R they related?_ Asked Hikaru.

I responded to Hikari:_ I noticed :)_ and to Hikaru: _I don't know._

They continued to interview me about everything that happened with Kyo and Yuki until class got out. Luckily, I didn't have next period with them, since the twins didn't have the attention span to learn a foreign language. I did have it with Maiko though, who did have the attention span for it, and was really good at it. We conjugated verbs, which was surprisingly easy, since there are very few differences. The rest of the day went by fairly quickly, which is a good and a bad thing at the same time. It means school is over, but it also means I have to go home. To my mother. To her poisonous words and cruel hands.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

It had to be about 1 AM. I slipped out the window in my room with the bag I kept for times like this. The blue bag held a sleeping bag, aspirin, a mirror, a couple rolls of gauze, and tons of band-aids. Back when we were young, Maiko, Rin, the twins and I built a tree-house of sorts in the woods behind my house. It wasn't really a tree-house; it was more like a platform, set upon top of the tree. Who-knows-how-long-ago, someone had cut off the top part of the tree, so they had decided (with Maiko's dad's help) to build a tree house on it. It was a square platform, with a 6 foot column on each corner which supported the roof. Between each column was a 3 foot board, which worked as a wall, but still allowed a great view. It also allowed them to climb to the top, since they were taller than they had been so long ago, and to star gaze, and relax. It also gave me a place to fix myself up.

I always came out there when ever me mom roughed me up pretty bad; I used to run out here just to cry myself to sleep, but as I've gotten older, I've been picking up extra supplies whenever mom send me to do the shopping, like a small package of band-aids, or aspirin. It was kinda depressing to think about as I wrapped my hand and wrist where my mother's beer bottle hit when she threw it at my face, so I decided to look at the house in the woods. It was kinda in the middle of nowhere, but I could see the top half of the house and the roof from my vantage point. I continued to assess myself and began wrapping my calf where a second bottle hit me.

When I finished, I looked back up at the house, and noticed the roof wasn't just any empty blue-grey roof, anymore; there was something on it, and to be more specific, someone on it. I've seen this roof many times before, and no one's ever been on it before, at least not to my knowledge. I never knew who, if anyone lived out there. I always assumed there must be some road leading out to it, but I never really cared enough to find it. Now, at least, I knew who lived out there, because there was only one person I've ever seen with hair that shade of orange; Kyo Sohma.

I pulled out my phone.

_Ring…Ring…Ring…_

"What do you want Ari-chan?" a very sleepy Rin asked.

"Hey, you know how you said you owed me one?"

"Sadly."

"Well, by tomorrow morning, you will have paid me that one. I need you to come over to the old tree-house right now. And bring a sleeping bag."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"I _cannot believe_ you are making me do this with you!" Rin whisper/yelled at me, as we walked down the street... for the fourth time. "This isn't like Tessa's American song, _Call me Maybe_!"

We were walking down a road near my house where the house's drive way might be. I was quite determined to find the way to that house.

"You do realize we could just walk down through the woods to the house and follow it back to the road?" Rin stated.

"But that would be weird!"

"And this isn't?" I was just about to say that it isn't when I ran into someone for the second time in just two days.

"Oh my gosh! Sorry! This is the second time in two day that this has happened. I'm not normally this clumsy!" I apologized, as I looked up into the face of….Yuki? He had the exact same expression as Kyo did; panicked, shocked, and confused all at the same time, before he composed himself.

"No harm done, Ms. Takahashi," he replied with a smile for Rin and me. "May I ask where you young ladies are going?"

"The market," Rin suavely answered. Did I mention she's an excellent liar?

"What a coincidence. I am as well. Would you mind if I joined you?" It was up to me since Rin had her phone out, texting somebody.

"Sure. Fine with me," I replied hoping it sounded believable. What I was a little more worried about, was hoping that he wouldn't notice mind slight limp from last night; I could walk pretty normally, but it hurt more than limping. As we started walking to the market, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out, it was from Rin. I quickly read it.

_Commoner's supermarket! Commoner's supermarket!_

I had to pretend to cough to hide my laughter at the Ouran High School Host Club (A. N. if you haven't watched it, watch it! It's good!) Hitachiin twin quote. Yes, Rin and I watch anime. We happen to enjoy it, and OHSHC is one of our favorites! Wow, I am so off topic right now, so I'm gonna stop talking like an awkward person…

As we were walking, I almost had a panic attack, when I realized, since we were going to the market, we would need money; then I realized (and was so grateful) that I had grabbed 2000 yen (A. N. about $25) on my way out. Then, I realized another thing. You know how when you see people walking together, you can kinda tell, like by how close they're standing? Well, I don't think anyone would have thought Yuki was walking with us; it looked like we weren't walking together, but like we just happened to be walking at the same speed in the same direction. While Rin and I were only about an inch apart at our arms, he was a good 2 feet (A. N. sorry, I only convert $, not distance) from me, and he was tense as a cat who'd had a bucket of water thrown on him. It ended up turning into an awkward silence, or it did for me anyway. We weren't too far from the market though, so it ended quickly. Rin and I bought a few things to keep appearances up, because we didn't exactly want to seem like stalkers. I was pretty sure he was still somewhere in the store shopping, so I grabbed Rin's hand and ran into the girl's room.

"Should we-" I started, before Rin covered my mouth with her hand. I waited as she checked under each stall door, and finding no one, gestured for me to go on.

"Should we follow him home? I mean, he came out of the right area of road, and both their last names are Sohma…" I trailed off, not really knowing what else to say.

"If I was your friend, I would say no, cause then you'd no better than the Yuki fan-girls. But, as your best-friend, I say what the hell. Why not?" I grinned and hugged her, then grabbed her hand and our bag of goodies and quickly peeked out the bathroom door.

"I think I see him leaving!" I whisper/yelled. "Let's go!" We slowly walked out and could see him through the windows of the store. We pretended to still be shopping on the off-chance he turned around, until he was almost around the corner. We quickly power-walked then peeked around the shrug that encased the market's parking lot, and sneakily retraced our steps back to where I ran into Yuki, when he turned down a dirt road. We waited a minute until he was far enough down for us to sneak across the road and hide behind the trees that surrounded and obscured the lane. I turned to Rin and began facial-expression/ hand gesture-talking:

_**Should we follow?**_

_ I don't know! This is your thing!_

_** Well I'm asking you!**_

_ Whatever you want._

_** Ugh. Fine; let's go.**_

_We're creepers, aren't we?_

_**Yep.**_

We scurried along the path, staying far enough away so he'd be unlikely to see us, but close enough so we could sort of see him. It didn't take long to reach his house; and it was _the_ house. The house I saw every night and always wondered who would live out there.

Suddenly, there was a flash of orange, and Kyo was there; it was like he'd jumped off the roof or something.

"'Bout time you got home you damn rat; I'm starvin' over here!"

"I wouldn't have take so long if you hadn't waited until late morning to say you wanted breakfast, you stupid cat," Yuki responded, coldness coming off him in waves. I'd never seen him like this, he tended keep himself at a distance from everyone, but he was always nice. The other thing I noticed, was that the words, "cat," and, "rat," didn't really belong in that context. Super weird nicknames, maybe? Rin and I both gave each other, '_What the hell?' _looks, and continued to watch their exchange. They continued to rant about whose fault it was, until something I really didn't expect happened; Kyo threw a punch at Yuki, and Yuki dodged _then kicked him in the face!_ Kyo fell back, while Yuki acted like nothing happened, and went inside. You could tell Kyo was seething with anger; but it made me mad that I couldn't see if he was ok, not without looking like a stalker anyway. I really hated it, because I'm one of those people, where if everyone else isn't ok, then I'm not ok. He sat up; put his elbows on his knees and his hands in his hair. He mumbled something I didn't catch, but you could feel the frustration rolling of him in waves. He got to his feet, turned around, and looked like he was heading towards the woods, but a different part than where we were hidden.

This time, it was Rin who grabbed my arm, and we ran back down the road.

"What the hell was that?" Rin yelled, both of us catching our breath from the up-hill run.

"Why are you asking me?" I paused to take a breath. "And what was up with the 'rat,' and 'cat,' comments?"

"I don't even know, and I don't think I want to know," Rin replied, who was still catching her breath. Rin isn't tubby or anything, she's just out of shape, like she's thin, but in an I-eat-healthy-ish-but-I'm-really-lazy kind of way.

"Time to head home?" I offered.

"Yes," she replied. "Time to head home."


	3. Chapter 3

We walked over to Rin's house, and I left a note for my mom about where I was. Since it was still pretty early, we had a Ju-on movie marathon (A. N. Ju-on is the original Japanese version of The Grudge. It's really good!). When we finally finished laughing at all the stupid things thing people did; we decided to order some take-out, since her parents weren't home yet. She was standing by her window ordering while I waited on the couch.

"Um, could you hang on for a minute?" I heard her ask. "Ari-chan! Come here! Look outside! Is that a cat?" I ran over to peek outside, and there it was, a brown and orange cat lying outside in the rain. It was on the sidewalk by some bushes, so it didn't look like it was hit by a car.

"I'll be right back!" I told Rin. "I'm gonna go see if it's ok!" I borrowed Rin's rain coat and ran out to the cat. It was still breathing, but it was pretty cold. It was hard to tell if it was injured, because the wind and rain was so strong it had blown my hood off and was playing with my hair like a child's toy. I scooped up the cat and ran back inside.

"Hey, is it ok?" Rin asked, obviously distressed about the cat.

"Its fine, I think. Could you run some luke-warm water in the tub? I'm pretty sure my swim suit was still left in my bag from when I went to Maiko's last weekend. I'll go change while you get that ready. Make sure it's not too deep!"

I quickly changed in to my black and blue bikini and walked to the bathroom with the cat where Rin was waiting in her own swimsuit.

"Do you think dog shampoo will work on a cat?" I asked. We both looked at Rin's lazy tea-cup poodle, Penguin, who had decided to come in and join us, but was already fast asleep.

"I think it will." I climbed into the tub to keep a hold on the still passed-out cat in case it woke up, and Rin sat on the edge, pouring a cup of warm water over it. After a while, we found out it wasn't orange and brown, just orange, with quite a bit of mud on it. It was so dirty, we had to empty and refill the tub twice, because the water would turn brown.

"That's what it gets for running around in a storm like this one." As if to punctuate her words, we saw a bright flash of lightning, and heard the loud discharge of thunder.

_Kyo…_

I couldn't believe I got lost like that. After running through the woods, I found myself in an unfamiliar part of town. I tried to find something familiar, something to go by. Having no coat, no umbrella, and the chilling wind didn't help.

_It's all that damn rat's fault…_ I thought to myself. I knew it wouldn't be long 'til I transformed, so I tried to hide in some bushes, but I guess I wasn't quick enough, because I changed before I could get all the way behind them. Having fur definitely helps when you're cold. It doesn't work very well when it's soaking wet though. I tried to keep going, but I only got maybe six feet. Everything began to tip, and eventually, go black; but when I woke up, everything was white. It was shiny, like clean porcelain.

"Hey! Look I think it's waking up!" I didn't know who it was. Everything was still kinda tipping, but it sounded like a girl.

_Wait! A girl? Not Kagura! _I started to panic and tried to get up, and then I realized I was still a cat. _Thank god…_ Then I really looked around; I was in a bathroom with two chicks in bikinis; either I was dreaming, or I had no clue what is goin' on.

The girl whose lap I was in rubbed under my chin, which felt amazing.

"Shh," she whispered. "Yeah, it's ok. You're fine." She was the same girl who had spoken earlier, but she seemed familiar. I heard a loud _ding-dong!_ And jumped at the same time the girl did, before I realized it was a door-bell

"I'll get it!" she said and started to get up and move me.

"Um, I don't think so," her friend said, who had pulled some shorts and a shirt on over her swimsuit. I felt like such a pedophile. "The person who delivers for us is usually a very attractive young guy, and I'm not the one who's dripping wet in a bikini, so I'll get it." They both laughed as the other girl left.

"Come on, let's get you dried off," the girl with the black and blue hair said. It was when I noticed her hair that I recognized her. _She's something Takahashi. The girl who ran into me yesterday. And didn't make me transform…_ She began to towel dry me, which was _not_ fun, and had just began to use a hair dryer to finish off the drying when what I'd just started worrying about happened. I transformed.

_Arisu…_

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what happened. I was sitting down and leaning against the cabinets in Rin's bathroom starting up the hair dryer to finish drying our little orange friend, when there was this big puff of smoke. I coughed and practically gagged on it before I opened my eyes again; and what do I find? Kyo Sohma _completely naked_ quickly wrapping a towel around himself, before shoving his hand over my mouth to stifle my scream, his face inches from mine. His other hand went to my should so I was partially pinned against the drawers behind me.

"Look, if I take my hand off your mouth, do you _promise_ you won't scream?" he whispered, and I could feel his breath on my face. I slightly nodded my hand and he slow released my mouth. I brought my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, since I was still only wearing a bikini and didn't really want a guy who was basically a stranger to see me like that. I sat and stared at him for a while, while he stared at the ceiling, looking at a loss for words. I was at a loss for words too, I mean, a minute ago, _he was a cat!_ And now he's a person! That's not a normal thing!

When he finally looked up at me, he looked absolutely perplexed.

"Why aren't you freaking out? Any sane person would be freaking out right now, trying to convince themselves that this didn't just happen."

"Well…" I thought for a moment, resting my chin on my knees. "I'm not freaking out _because_ this just happened, so I can't very well say it didn't. And _because_ it just happened I may very well _not_ be a sane person." He looked away from my eyes for a moment, and seemed to notice the wound on my leg and hand, which I'd had to unwrap since the bandages wouldn't be very useful if they were wet. "Hey, what happened to you? Are you ok?" I held my hand out so I could see the still red gashes the breaking glass had given me. I didn't want to lie, but I had to tell him something. I mean, I don't like lying; I always feel bad when I do, unless it's about something like a surprise party, then it's necessary, and it won't hurt anyone.

"Do you promise you won't tell anyone?" He nodded, which wouldn't seem like much to most people, but I felt like I could trust him. "My mom did it. She was drunk and she threw some bottles at me. It's no big deal; worse things have happened before." He looked completely shocked. I chuckled, but there was no humor in it. "You look like you did when I ran into you yesterday. Really, it's no big deal. It was just a couple bottles. You should have seen my other hand after she shoved it on a hot stove burner. The scars are faded, mostly, but you can still kinda see them. That was when I was nine," I held out my hand and he scooted closer, keeping an eye on the towel (which was the only thing that covered him at the moment) so he could see the marks left by the burn. He gently caressed my hand, as if it might break if he weren't careful. The marks were mostly faded away, from years of being taken care of and about a pound of lotion; they had turned into slightly raised curved pink lines. "But like I said, It's not a big deal or-"

"What the hell are you talking about?! Of course it's a big deal! She's hurting and abusing you, and you think that's _ok!?"_ I was actually pretty surprised; not many people who I had told about this had made such a big deal (except for Hikaru and Hikari, who cried and told me what a sad story it was and how strong I was; they made me think of another pair of twins, one of whom they shared a name with, maybe?) about it. He looked angry and upset at the same time. "Wait," he said, and I looked away from my hand, and back up at him. "If you got the other injuries recently… Do you still live with her?!" he yelled, sounding positively pissed.

"Well, yeah, she's my mom. My dad isn't exactly in the picture, so it's not like I have anywhere else to go!" I yelled back at him. I couldn't believe he was getting pissed at me for something I didn't do. "It's not like I asked for this! A dad who didn't want me, so he left; and a mom who resents me for it, so I get beaten for something that's her fault! It's not like I can come live with you!"

"Well maybe you can!" he yelled back which surprised me, almost as much as it seemed to surprise him.

It was then that Rin walked in, take-out in hand, and passed out cold.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

We had gotten Rin laid down in her bed; actually _I_ had gotten Rin laid down in her bed, since as Kyo explained to me, he couldn't unless he wanted to be a cat again. He had run into her parent's room and borrowed some of her dads grey sweatpants and a black shirt that hugged his muscles in all the right places. I mentally shook myself for even thinking like that, I barely knew him. I had already gotten dressed in Rin's room, so we were sitting on the couches in her living room, eating some of the take-out we had ordered.

"Hey, Kyo?"

"Yeah?" he responded through a mouthful of sweet-and-sour pork.

"About what you said earlier, you know, about me, like, living with you…" He stopped eating and looked up at me, and just stared for a while, while I stared back. He finished chewing before responding.

"You could, ya know. If you wanted to, that is. I mean, if I were in your place I would get outta there the first chance I got… Hey, why haven't you asked yet? You must wanna know."

"About what?"

"The curse. My curse. The Sohma curse. The whole reason why I'm a cat."

"Because if you wanted to tell me, you would. I would like to know, but if you don't want to share than you shouldn't have to for my sake."

"Well you might as well know. For every animal in the Chinese zodiac, there is someone to represent it. I'm the cat and Yuki's the rat…" he continued to explain everything for an hour at least. It wouldn't have taken so long, but I had so many questions, but I did realize one big thing.

"That's why you and Yuki got so nervous!" I exclaimed when the pieces fell together.

"What?" Kyo asked, completely lost.

"When I bumped into you, you had the most panicked look on your face, and so did Yuki when I ran into him today."

"Wait, when did you see Yuki today? And I was not panicked, I was surprised!"

"Oh, calm yourself. And Rin and I just ran into him on the way to the market today. Except I ran into him literally… And Kyo? I might just take you up on that offer."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Sneaking into my house wasn't hard, and it wasn't really sneaking, since no one was even home.

Taking care of Rin yesterday, had been though. I managed to convince her that she must have eaten something bad earlier today or something like that. I also told her that someone had come asking if we had seen a cat that fit the description of the one we found, and it turned out to be theirs. I'm pretty sure she fell for it, that or she realized she wasn't going to get anything out of me, and gave up.

Once we reached my house, I left Kyo in what might be considered our living room, while I packed my stuff in a couple of old duffle bags. When I looked back at my room after I finished, there was very little left of _me. _It would look like someone had lived here, but you wouldn't know it was me. This was right before all hell broke loose.

"Who the hell are you?!" It was my mother. I ran out to where Kyo was glaring at my mom, while she was threatening him.

"Mom! It's ok! He's a friend of mine!" Then, she turned her hate towards me.

"Oh, I see now. He's your _boyfriend_, isn't he, you god damn whore! And what are you doing with those bags? You are not leaving the house with him, you little slut!"

"Don't you _dare_ talk to her like that!" Kyo yelled at her. "She'd be better off with me than here!" He leaned down a bit to look me in the eye, but didn't actually touch me. "You ok?" he asked. I nodded slowly; hoping it wouldn't cause the tears forming at the edges of my eyes to fall. It didn't work, and I felt the warm traces they left on my cheeks. I was surprised to feel his hands caress my cheeks as he wiped the tears away, making me blush; other than when he was trying to stop me from screaming at Rin's house, he'd never really _touched_ me.

He grabbed both my bags from me and slung them over his shoulders. He then made me blush a little harder by taking my hand; he moved me to his right, so when we walked out, he would be in between me and my glaring mother. I was just glad she'd stopped yelling; once she realized that Kyo was stronger than she was, there wasn't much she could do. She's just like a angry little kid; she's upset so she takes her anger out on other people (me), but once there's someone who's stronger and meaner than she is, she backs down, at least until they're gone.

When we got outside, safe and sound, I let out a breath I hadn't noticed I'd been holding. Kyo let go of my hand, and we began the walk to his house. He'd already informed me that his family didn't know I was coming, but that was ok with me. He'd told me about how they were like him, too; how his and Yuki's cousin, Shigure, was the dog, and about some of the other Sohmas I'd asked about; like Hatsuharu, who was the cow, and Momiji (I hadn't even known he was a Sohma), the rabbit. It all still left me completely confused just thinking about it all, but it still intrigued me. We had walked about half way there in silence before anyone said anything.

"Hey, Arisu-," Kyo started.

"Call me Ari. It's what everyone else calls me."

"Kay, Ari. There're all gonna be pretty pissed at me for just bringing you inside, much less letting ya live with us, and knowing that damn rat, he's gonna try and kick my ass for it, so if they try and do anything, uh, just, make sure to get outta there, ok?" This was a side of Kyo you definitely didn't see often; the kinda awkward, caring side. He didn't like to show it very often, because you can tell he doesn't feel very comfortable with this side of himself. I myself have only seen it once or twice, but it's nice to have him make the effort.

We finally reached the road I had only gone down once before, but I wasn't exactly gonna tell anyone about that, because I would seem like a creeper (which I was). I hadn't gotten a very good look at the house last time, because we'd been focused on other things (like Yuki kinda being a douche bag if you ask me). We approached the front door, and Kyo and I both took a breath before he opened the door.

"Is that you, Kyo?" a voice questioned from inside. I didn't recognize it, so I assumed it was Yuki's cousin Shigure. I heard footsteps coming our way and prepared for what Kyo had told me to expect "I do hope you brought some food home, because I am-" He stopped and stared. Just like when I ran into Kyo and Yuki, it was hard not to laugh at how comical their faces were. Then I remembered I would need to make a good impression on the man if I wished to stay here.

"Hi. I'm Arisu Takahashi. Sorry for arriving unannounced. It seems like every time I'm around a Sohma, I manage to surprise or startle them. You must be Shigure; it's nice to finally meet you." He still seemed too stunned to talk so I just grabbed his hand and shook it. It fell limply at his side when I finished, and he just continued to look between me and Kyo before regaining his composure.

"Don't worry about it dear! No harm done. Kyo, where have you been, and what's in those bags? Maybe Yuki can help for I am so busy. Yuki! We have a guest!" I heard what I assumed to be Yuki's footsteps coming down the stairs. He mumbled something that sounded like, "It's too early for this," and simply lifted a hand as he walked by shirtless to what looked like the kitchen.

"Hey! Have some manners, would ya?!" Kyo yelled at him. He finally seemed to realize it wasn't one of their normal guests. His face again mimicked what it had when I ran into him. Unlike Shigure though, it was only a second before he recovered. Even so it wasn't quick enough to stop me from bursting into laughter.

"Oh my god!" I exclaimed between fits of laughing. "You all, are priceless! You guys need to see your faces!" I finally managed not to die of laughter. "I swear it's like you've never seen a girl before. Oh, geez. Sorry for laughing. This is just the, I believe fourth time this has happened to me. Startling someone, I mean. I think someone's gonna need to get me one of those cat bells," I said with a knowing look at Kyo.

"Hey, what are ya lookin' at me for?" he asked. I simply held up both my hands in surrender.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. I was _most definitely_ not implying anything. I think when we get the bell, it should be blue; because blue goes with everything. Like my hair, and especially the color _orange."_ Before Kyo had a chance to yell back at me, Shigure interrupted.

"Kyo, may I speak with you?" he said with a nervous look.

"I'm going to make a phone call. Excuse me," Yuki left the room, every part of him tense. I watched him as he left, and his tenseness showed off the muscles in his arms. He wasn't as strong as Kyo, and he didn't have abs like him either, but he wasn't bad to look at.

"Wait-" I said, stepping forward. They both turned to look at me, and I was about to try and explain things, but Kyo grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back toward him, so he had his arm around me as if to shield me from his family, while facing him.

"Let me handle this," he said quietly so only I could hear. "They aren't exactly the most understanding."

He let me go, set my bags down, and turned to face the other wide-eyed Sohmas. "She saved my life. And she found out in the process. She knows everything. But there's one thing ya gotta understand." He quickly turned around, grabbed my hand, and pulled me toward him, and hugged me. Everyone watched in awe as it happened. _Nothing._


	4. Chapter 4

I could feel the blush creeping into my cheeks as he held me, and Yuki and Shigure stared. And they had a right to stare. After everything Kyo had told me, this shouldn't be possible! He should be a little orange cat right now! I had to admit, though, it felt good to be in his arms, I felt truly safe for the first time in my life.

"Kyo, what is going on?" Yuki asked, still standing in the doorway to the kitchen. Kyo let me go but made no move to move away. Instead he just leaned down and grabbed my bags.

"You got these?" I nodded. "Good. Just head upstairs to my room. It's the first on the right. I'll get things sorted out," then he leaned in close and whispered so just I could hear. I could feel my blush spread furiously across my face from his closeness. "If I yell for ya to, run. There's a balcony in my room, and you could easily reach the lower roof from there, and it's not a high jump from there, got it?" I slightly nodded as he pulled away. I grabbed my bags and walked quietly upstairs to where his room was. I walked in and quietly shut the door behind me. The whole house was quiet for a moment; then it exploded in yelling. They were all yelling at each other at the same time. I was only able to understand some of it, but I managed to catch "manners," "hurt," and "could have killed her," from Kyo. Shigure seemed the most relaxed, so I wasn't able to hear much of what he said. I did hear, "insanity," "Akito," "Hatori," and "memory" from Yuki, who seemed uncharacteristically angry. I'd seen him irritated, or annoyed, but never outright angry; except maybe for when he kicked Kyo, but he didn't really seem _angry_ then.

I realized it was about noon, so I pulled my smaller duffle bag over to Kyo's bed and sat down and dug through it until I found my neon green bag. To most people, it would just look like a regular purse or make-up bag, but it was much more important than that. I quickly pulled out my lancet, glucometer, and insulin syringe. Yes, I'm diabetic. I blame my mom for smoking while she was pregnant. There's nothing I can do about it now, so there's no use complaining. I quickly pricked my finger and squeezed my finger so the blood would pool on my finger. I quickly grabbed my blood glucose test strips and put it into the glucometer. I got out my insulin syringe as I wait the moments it took to measure my blood sugar, which was 69. _Hmm. That's pretty low, and I haven't eaten anything today, which means Pixi-Stick time._ I thought to myself. I was just about to inject my insulin when Kyo walked in, still extremely angry from his happy little conversation down there.

"How much do they hate me?" I asked. He looked down at me, but then his eyes locked on the needle in my hand, about to inject myself.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" he yelled, and grabbed the syringe away. "What the hell is this?"

"It's my insulin that I need, so if you would kindly give it back…"

"Why would you need insu-whatever?"

"Because I'm diabetic, and without what's in that needle I will die." Ok, that might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but it didn't change the fact that my blood sugar was low, so I really needed it.

"Really? Well, uh, hurry up and do it already," he said as he tossed the syringe back to me and I quickly poked myself in the stomach. I finished and grabbed one of the Pixi-sticks I kept in my bag, while I put everything else away

"So, like I said, how much do they hate me?"

"They don't hate you. Come on," he said grabbing my stuff.

"Where we goin'?"

"Your room."

"Are you _serious?!_ Oh my gosh! I'll be right back!" I quickly ran down stairs, trying not to trip and looked around for Shigure. I didn't see him, but I did see Yuki. I felt kinda awkward about asking him, since it was kinda obvious I wasn't really wanted here, but it was quicker that searching everywhere.

"Um, Yuki, do you know where Shigure is?" he turned and looked at me.

"He's probably in his study. I'll show you where it is." I noticed he still lacked a shirt, as he walked over and began walking down the hall as I followed. He stopped in front of a closed door.

"Ms. Takahashi, I'd like to apologize for earlier. We don't exactly get surprise visits like this very often. We were surprised that Kyo had told you about the curse, which he really isn't supposed to do, but its ok. I'd also like to apologize for my lack of manners."

"It's no big deal. I've had worse problems from people than being tired." I began to turn around to knock on the door, when I felt a hand on my wrist.

"Wait, um, Ms. Takahashi, there is one thing we were all rather curious about. We were wondering if, well, it was just Kyo, who wasn't, _affected_." He looked up at me, asking with his eyes.

"Fine with me. Gimme a hug!" I didn't really mind. I love hugging people. Hikaru always made a joke that I would 'turn any guy you hug, _on_," just because I always hug everyone by wrapping my arms around their neck, and I have a tendency to lean into hugs, so, yeah. I think you know what I mean. It's just something I've always done. So, I automatically did to Yuki as well. It kinda felt like he sucked in a breath, but it was too late to fix anything. It didn't make it any less awkward since he _still didn't have a shirt on;_ it definitely didn't help the blush creeping up my cheeks either. Nothing happened, so we kinda awkwardly stood there for a second, then let go.

"I guess I'm just weird like that," I said, smiling.

"Maybe," Yuki responded, smiling back. "Well, Shigure will be inside there, probably writing."

"Thanks!" I said, before opening the door and slipping inside. Shigure didn't seem to notice. He was facing away from me, so I ran over to him, and wrapped my arms around him neck.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I promise you won't regret this!" he jumped when I grabbed him, which almost made me laugh.

"It's no problem at all dear. When Kyo told me the tragic story of your horrid mother, I could never let a lovely young lady stay with such a terrible person!" he dramatically swooned over the words. "I am delighted to have you staying here with us!"

"Glad to hear it! Well, I gotta go unpack! See ya!" I quickly ran back upstairs to see Kyo still waiting outside his room. I reached over and grabbed one of the bags he was carrying, which seemed to surprise him.

"What? If I'm living in a house full of guys, I need to be able to pull my own weight." He shrugged and led me to my room. It was the second on the right. It was actually pretty nice; made bed, a little desk, I could definitely get used to this.

"This is mine?" I asked. I'd never had a room this big before. I'd seen my friends' rooms before, so this seemed pretty average sized, but it was pretty big compared to what I'd always had.

"Yeah, what'd ya expect? Your own bathroom?"

"No! I mean, it's perfect! I've never had a room this big before! My old room was like a quarter of the size of this one!"

"Oh, well, glad ya like it," Kyo said, looking down, and seeming kinda awkward like he had on the walk here. Like he wanted to tell me something.

"Hey, you ok?" I asked, dropping my bag and taking a step closer to him.

"It's nothin'. I gotta go." He set my bag down where he'd been standing and quickly exited the room.

_Yuki…_

He could hear her excited talking from his room. He'd finally taken the time to put a shirt on which he found in a large pile of cloths, which was evidence enough that his room had probably never been cleaned, ever. He couldn't believe Kyo had even brought her here. He _should_ have gone to Hatori; _immediately. _But no, he told her _everything._ He didn't have anything against Ms. Takahashi, but she really shouldn't be here; if she were to ever see the stupid cat's true form… he didn't even want to imagine what would happen. She seemed to have accepted Kyo, and through him, everyone else, but still.

There was also that hug, in the hallway; he hadn't transformed. She was someone he could be with who wasn't another member of the zodiac. That, and there was the hug itself; did she like him? Or had he just imagined it? Because most of time, you don't _just hug_ someone like that. Now, he definitely hadn't been hugged by many girls, but still. It had definitely piqued his interest.


	5. Chapter 5

_Ugh, mornings…_ I thought to myself as I woke up. I knew I had to get ready for school, but five more minutes would be amazing. Sadly, I knew I didn't have five minutes. I slowly opened my eyes.

_Wha-wait. Is there someone in my room?_ I then did what any girl would do; I let out my loudest, shrillest girl scream possible.

"Ms. Takahashi! It's only me!" I heard Yuki shout, and I stopped.

"Oh! My! God! You gave me a mini-_heart attack!_ Holy jeezus! What are you doing in here?" I asked, still breathing hard over being scared so bad.

"Actually, I came in here to wake you up. But you looked so peaceful, like you were dreaming, so I didn't want to interrupt." _Still kinda creeper-like to watch me while I sleep… _I thought to myself. Then, something that scared me even worse happened; the door suddenly slammed open, I jumped about a foot in the air, and there was Kyo, looking like he was about to kill someone, which he probably would.

"What's goin' on? I heard you scream from all the way down stairs. And what's the damn rat doin' here?!"

"Took you long enough to get here, stupid cat," Yuki said in what a normal person would perceive as calmly, but how I perceived it as was that he was as angry as Kyo right now. He just knew how to hold his anger in.

"What the hell are ya doin' in her room?! And why'd you scream?"

"If you guys would _shut up_ for a minute I could explain!" They both looked at me like I'd just slapped them. "Oh, don't get your man-panties in a twist." I think that sentence alone stunned them even more. "Has no one ever told you to shut up before? Yuki was gonna wake me up. I woke up and saw him but didn't realize it was him, I screamed. The end. If everyone happy now? Cause I swear, if you guys keep arguing, I'm gonna kick your asses. Now if you don't mind…" I gestured for them to leave. Kyo just left with a scowl without saying anything.

"He doesn't smile very often, does he?" I asked, staring after him.

"No, not really. Sorry again for startling you," Yuki said with a smile, then left.

_He should._

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

When we finally arrived at school, everyone seemed to stare. Their whispered mumbles could be heard as we walked by.

"Who is that?"

"Is she new?"

"No, she's always been here. Her name's Takahashi."

"She's always so quiet."

"What are they doing with _her?"_

"Are they related or something?"

I simply ignored them. Who cares what they thought? The best part of it was seeing the Yuki fan club blanch as we walked by.

"Yuki, I have a feeling your fan-girls don't like me," I said, trying to hold in my laughter.

"Fan-girls?" he looked to where they were standing. "Oh, them. Well I guess they'll just have to live with it, won't they?"

As we walked into class, to put it simply, my friends jaws hit the floor; especially the twins. Hikaru actually got up while Hikari was still sitting, too stunned to do anything and walked up to me.

"Hey guys, I gotta borrow Ari-chan for a moment, so if you don't mind," he said quickly, linking his arm with mine and dragging me backwards out of the classroom. Yuki didn't object and just sat in his seat, but Kyo hesitated before I shrugged at him and left with Hikaru.

"What in the _fuck_ was that?" Hikaru asked as soon as the door closed. I leaned against the wall and tried to think of something so this conversation wouldn't happen.

"Hikaru, we're gonna be late," I said, making a move for the door.

"Ari," he said. Putting his arms on either side of me so I was partially trapped; he was taller than me, so I could quite easily duck under his arms and hurry in, but then I would just have to do this later. "This conversation is happening, and you're trying to escape, so something is definitely going on. Spill. What's going on?"

To be honest, I trusted Hikaru a lot more than my other friends. Besides Rin, he was the only one who knew just how bad my mom was. He had been riding his bike alone one time, when I had hobbled out of my house right after a particularly bad beating. He had probably saved my life that day. He never told anyone, but only after I made him promise about a thousand times not to. It was through him that I'd met all my friends. I'd never lied to him in my life.

"Well, it's actually a really funny story if you think about it. I kinda, under a _very_ special set of circumstances; this is the funny part, ended up, living, with, them…" I said, half mumbling the last part. His eyes widened and squinted at the same time, obviously confused.

"Wait, what? What the hell are you talking about? I mean, you hardly know them!" His voice began to get louder and louder, so I quickly clamped one hand over his mouth and one behind his head, to better hold his mouth shut. It meant I had to get on my tip-toes and had to pull his head down closer to me so I could get a good hold on his head.

(A.N. for this next part, I suggest listening to Adam Lambert's Sleepwalker)

"Don't yell! People are going to hear you!" I whispered. His eyes had widened again in surprise when I'd reached up and covered his mouth, but they now returned to normal size. He slowly reached up and carefully removed my hand from his mouth. I dropped my hand at my side as he stood there, both hands again on either side of me. He was still in the hunched over position I'd forced him into, his face still inches from mine. He continued to look at me, staring into my eyes. And ever so slowly, he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine. It was gentle, like a soft caress. It was over before I realized it had begun. I tried to look down to hide the nervous blush that had crept into my cheeks. I mean, I love Hikaru like family, but I wasn't sure if it was more than that. Not yet at least. I felt him bring a few fingers up under my chin, making me look up at him.

"You can ask people for help. You're not alone. I promise you that," he said, removing his fingers from my chin, and releasing himself from the wall. "I promise," he repeated. And with that, he left and went back into the classroom. Leaving me alone, to figure things out.

_Hikaru…_

He walked back into class, still nervous, but also excited after what he'd done; mostly nervous though. Upon entering, he received a knowing look from Hikari, which he returned, a curious look from Yuki and a glare from Kyo, both of which he ignored. He simply held his head high, not caring how they took it. They didn't deserve her. He was still having trouble controlling his anger at what he'd heard. Why would she live with them? He'd known her so much longer; he'd even saved her life once. Ever since then, he'd done everything he could to make her happy, to take her mind off things. To make her world as peaceful and happy as possible. Why didn't she let him help her?

_Kyo…_

He couldn't believe this guy. He had some nerve doing that. _What is he to her? _He found himself wondering. _Wait- why do I even care? What the hell! _It just pissed him off even more when the creep walked in with Ari, leaving her behind, while he comings in, looking pretty satisfied with himself. He just sat back in his chair behind Yuki, while Ari still wasn't back. He was tempted to take a swing at the guy, but he knew Ari wouldn't like it. If she wasn't back then something must be wrong, and punch her friend would only make it worse. He couldn't just let her sit out there if something was wrong. He quickly jumped out of his seat and ran outside just as the bell rang, surprising everyone. Especially Hikaru.

(A.N. And for this I listened to The Wanted's Glad You Came)

He found her in the same spot Hikaru had left her, except she had slid down the wall and was now just sitting there on the floor. The halls were empty except for a couple stragglers, who were quickly entering their classrooms. He knelt down in front of her, but she didn't look up at him; she just continued to stare down at her hands.

"Hey," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders; he'd felt more comfortable touching her since he wouldn't transform. "You ok?" she wiped the backs on her hand across her face to erase the tears which had just started to pool in her eyes. "I swear, I'm gonna kill that creep!" Kyo yelled, not caring who heard.

"No, it's fine," her voice stopped him. _How does she do that?_ He thought. He could be completely enraged, but when he heard her voice just now, it was gone. She made him relax. He decided to blame it on how sad you could tell she was. He hated it when girls cried. "You don't have to kill Hikaru. He didn't really do anything, it's my own fault. I'm just being stupid." He let go of her shoulders and sat beside her, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the wall. He reopened his eyes when he felt her lean her head against him arm. He hadn't really had any experience with girls, so he just sat there, letting her be. After a moment, she sprang upright.

"Hey, do you wanna get out of here?" she questioned kind of nervously, afraid he'd say no.

"Didn't expect you to be the kind to ditch class," he said with a grin.

"Oh, be quiet. I could really use some ice cream right now. You coming?"

"Sure," he responded. Getting up and helping her to her feet. He didn't let go of her hand as they walked out of the school; as Hikaru watched through the window in classroom door as they walked away together, as Kyo turned and looked right at him.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"Well I already decided we're doing it, so we're doing it," I said to Kyo, with as much finality as possible; hoping to end the conversation.

"Why do we gotta pick up the damn rat? He has legs, doesn't he? He can walk home himself."

"Because I said so. Don't be a baby."

"I ain't a baby!"

"Them prove it by stopping complaining and coming with me," I said, hoping to corner him. It seemed to because he just mumbled something to himself and continued to follow me back to the school. We had gone to get ice cream from a vendor in town, even though it wasn't very warm any more, being winter and all. I still thought it was a good idea though, so I dragged Kyo along with me. We weren't really sure exactly what to do after that, so we really just walked around and did whatever we wanted. We went on the bumper cars in the arcade, which involved a lot of yelling and death threats from Kyo, and then we did something much more fun. It's a game that my friends and I love to do.

"Basically, the way we do it," I explained. "Is that we each take turns, and what we do, is when someone walks by, just pretend like you're sneaking glances at them and begin laughing to yourself. You get one point if they look up at you; two if they begin checking themselves over, like checking their fly; and three if it looks like they look like they're panicking and are trying to figure out what's wrong with them."

"And what's the point of this?" he asked, not sounding very interested.

"The point is winning and getting to legally harass people," I responded with a smile. "_And,_ winner get's the loser as a slave for a day."

"Oh, you're on!" Of course making it a competition would pique his interest. I won, of course. He wasn't happy about it, but I certainly was. He would officially begin his slave duties tomorrow morning, and I would be sure that I wouldn't have to lift a finger.

We arrived at the school about 10 minutes before it would finally end. As we waited outside, I realized there was one thing that I had never really understood.

"Why do you guys hate each other?" Kyo didn't really seem surprised that I asked. "I mean, I get the whole curse thing. I get the story. But what does that have to do with you two? I mean you aren't them. That didn't actually happen to you two. Even if that's a true story, it was a long time ago; things have changed. But with you guys, it hasn't. Why is that?"

He seemed as unsure about the answer to that as I was. He never answered my question. We just sat and waited until the final bell rang and until Yuki came out, who seemed surprised, yet irritated to see us waiting.

"Did you guys have fun today?" he asked, and even though it sounded like a simple question, you could hear the hard edge of anger in it. I decided to ignore it.

"I actually did. We had ice cream and legally harassed people." Yuki looked up at me in utter confusion.

"I won't ask. Knowing Kyo though, he must have managed to get himself into some kind of trouble," he responded without looking at Kyo.

"Hey, you tryin' to start somethin'?!" Kyo yelled, and I situated myself between them, so (hopefully) no one would end up killed.

"Now that you mention it, his slave duties shall begin tomorrow at promptly seven AM. Seeing as I won at legally harassing people, he shall be me slave for one full day, and I don't plan on lifting a finger. And slave? I expect breakfast in bed at seven thirty."

"Stupid, lousy, game…" he muttered to himself.

"Oh, don't be a sore loser! I won! I'm a winner!"

"You tryin' to start somethin' too?!"

"Maybe I am!" I yelled back at him, standing on my toes to seem taller. "You gonna fight a girl?"

"Maybe I will!" he yelled back.

"Come at me! Bring it on!" He quickly threw a quick jab which I ducked and dodged, but then I saw his other fist coming at me, from angle that I wouldn't have noticed since I was focused on his other hand. I had to admit it, slave had skills. Then I felt another arm lifting me up and pulling me toward them, and another hand intercepted Kyo's fist.

"A gentleman doesn't hit young ladies, stupid cat," Yuki said, and I realized it was him holding me; I was balancing on the ball of one foot, but when he pulled me away so I wouldn't be hit, I was left being held under my arms against his chest.

"Yuki, I'm fine. You can let me up now"

"Oh. My apologies Ms. Takahashi. I wanted to be sure you were ok." He let me go and I stood up. I realized the bandages that were still on my hand had been slightly tousled and need some rewrapping.

"You didn't have to do that. I've had much worse than just a punch. Besides, it's not like he was trying to hurt me. Kyo, could you help me with this?" Yuki looked kind of lost.

"What's wrong with your hand?" he asked.

"Stray flying bottle. Ouch!" I winced as I tried to unwrap my bandages myself.

"Let me do it," Kyo said, reaching for my hand and unwrapping them much more gently than I had. I heard a small gasp as the gauze came off.

"A bottle? When did this happen?" I heard Yuki ask. He had obviously been left out of the loop.

"My mom threw it at me. Didn't Kyo tell you? Shigure knew," I explained as Kyo was carefully fixing my gauze.

"No, I must have not been there when this was explained. What do you mean? Your mother threw it at you? Why would she do that?" _This is going to be fun to explain…_

"Well, that part's kinda a long story. It kinda all began with me," I began, leaning against the wall of a nearby building. I hadn't told either of them the exact dynamics of my story, so all eyes were on me. "My dad never wanted a kid; so when my mom became pregnant with me, naturally, he was pissed. He left my mom and me to fend for ourselves. My mom's always blamed me for his leaving. Said it was my fault for being born. I've only met him once. It was my fifth birthday," I could feel the tears welling in my eyes and let them fall. "I didn't even know who he was at first. He said 'Happy birthday kid.' And gave me a little box. I opened it, and it had a small, intricately decorated pocket-knife in it. He said only to use it if I was sure. I didn't understand what he meant back then, I mean, I was only a kid. I later realized he was giving me an escape. A chance to free myself from my mom. I still have it. He said not to tell mom, and stayed for the rest of the day. He pretended to sleep on the couch until my mom was asleep. I heard a noise from my room. When I got up, I saw him leaving. He must have heard me, because he turned around and looked at me with a sad look on his face, then left and shut the door behind him. He literally walked out of our lives again. He never came back after that. The beatings got worse after that; mom said I wasn't a good enough daughter, so that was why he left. And I began to believe her. But then, I met Hikaru kinda by accident. He probably rescued me from that knife. He introduced me to his sister, and his friends, and everything slowly began to get better. The beatings didn't, but everything else did. I realized just how warped I had become." I could feel the tear steadily streaming down my cheeks, and there didn't seem to be an end to them. "And really, that's all there is to it," I finally finished. I looked up at both of them for the first time since before starting. They were both staring, and it even seemed like Yuki had the slight beginning of tears in his eyes, which made me smile a little. He wiped his away, but mine were still coming.

I got off the wall, but I was kinda shaky, so I almost fell. I felt a strong pair of arms lifting me off my feet and realized it was Kyo. I looked up at him.

"Let's go home," he said quietly, as I wrapped my arms around him and broke out in full on sobbing. Even when I was sure I'd soaked through his shirt, he just held me closer.


	6. Chapter 6

When I opened my eyes again, I was in my room. The sun was still out, and my eyes still felt a little puffy, so I probably hadn't been asleep too long.

_ Well that was pleasantly embarrassing…_ I thought to myself. _I just hope they don't think they need to walk on eggshells like everyone else. _Most teachers I'd had were aware of what had happened with my dad, so whenever we made something for father's day, they always sent me on some ridiculous errands for them. And whenever anything happened that had anything to do with dads, they made sure I wasn't a part of it. It was annoying as hell. It was a long time ago that he left, and no, I wasn't ok with it, but I could deal with it.

I got out of bed and began walked down to the kitchen. I was still half asleep, so I didn't even notice the three in sitting at the table, so I didn't even try to wipe the left over tears out of my eyes. I walked to the fridge to see if we had anything good to eat.

"What are ya doin'?" I turned around are finally noticed them.

"Oh, sorry. I'm still kinda out of it. I didn't even see you there," I explained, quickly running the backs of my sleeves over my face and walking over to sit with them at the kotatsu.

"Are you sure you're feeling ok, Ms. Takahashi?" Yuki asked, looking mildly concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine. And now that I have you talking, may I ask a question?"

"Ask away."

"Why are you so formal?"

"Excuse me?"

"Exhibit A. Most people would say 'what?' but you're more formal and say 'excuse me?' That, and you always call me Ms. Takahashi. No one calls me that. Why is that?"

"Hmm. I guess I've just always been like that," he answered after thinking for a moment. "It's how I was raised." The answer got me thinking. I'd never heard anything about Yuki's parents; or Kyo's for that matter. It made me wonder, and I was tempted to ask, but if they didn't talk about it, then they probably didn't want to.

"So what are we doing for dinner?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Yeah, I'm starvin' over here!" Kyo added.

"Well, we didn't really have anything planned. I guess we could order take-out again," Yuki suggested, getting up to go call in an order.

"Wait, what time is it?" I asked.

"I believe it is six-fifteen," Shigure answered.

"The market should still be open. I could make a quick shopping trip and I could make some tempura donburi. I'm not the best cook, but after cooking for my mother and myself pretty much forever, I've picked up a thing or two," I said with what I hoped was a convincing smile.

"I'll go with you," Yuki and Kyo said at the same time, both getting up, then freezing to glare at each other for a moment.

"You're both welcome to come, and I know patience is a virtue, but if you don't hurry you _will _be left behind," I warned, already at the door. As I opened the door and began to exit in slow motion I heard them practically stumbling over themselves to grabs their coats and shoes. I smiled at their antics, and then, noticed something.

It was a genuine smile. I tend to consider myself the Queen of No-Emotions. Throughout my life, I've had plenty of smiles and plenty of laughs, the only problem was ninety-eight percent were fake; pretending to laugh at something that should be funny, smiling at something mostly because it would be rude not to. It's not like I wanted to be like this, it's just that very few things make me smile; but these two did. They barely had to do anything but they did.

I had just stepped outside when then they finally decided to join me. As we started walking, I felt kinda awkward about earlier, so I felt like I should say something.

"Hey guys, sorry about earlier. That wasn't very cool of me to just break down like that."

"There's nothing to apologize for Ms. Takahashi. It actually took me by surprise. I'd had no idea…" he trailed off, not wanting to repeat it.

"The damn rat's right for once," Kyo said, looking unhappy to being agreeing with Yuki. "Hey, I wanted to ask you- about that little pocket knife. Do you really still…"

"Yeah," I dug it out of my pocket and handed it to him. "I always keep it with me. I never intend to use it or anything. I used to keep it because I used to consider it, but I haven't even thought about it for a long time now. I guess it just became a habit." I watched Kyo study the thorny vines that curled up, and down and around the outer cover of the single blade with a single silver lily in the middle.

"It's really pretty, for something meant to be so destructive," Yuki commented, and I couldn't disagree.

Kyo handed it back and I easily flipped out the blade, and both of them seemed to tense a little. I could see how sharp and shiny it still was after years of careful handling and care. As we continued to walk (I know it was immature), I played with the reflection and shined it on Yuki and Kyo, managing to keep it just out of their sight, but still on them.

"Having fun?" Kyo asked. I had it shining on the tip of his nose, so I knew he'd finally seen it.

(Animal by Neon Trees)

"Yes I am. Does kitty like shiny light?" I taunted in a patronizing tone, earning a smile from Yuki and a glare from Kyo. "And if you're gonna ask 'Are you trying to start somethin'?!' yes, I am. I'd've liked to see the result of my 'starting something' last time."

"Please," Kyo said. "I would 'a beat ya in no time."

"Is that so? Then let's try again!" I said, running over to the nearby public soccer/football field as Kyo chased after me and Yuki walked behind, taking his time. When we reached the center of the field, I quickly turned around and defensively put up my left arm since I'd noticed Kyo was right handed, it was logical that was where he'd strike first. Right arm for next punch. Left knee for that low right hook he'd tried to use earlier. Opening straight out on left. Right arm for the flying picture frame. Another left for her beer bottle. Step back to avoid being clawed at. She gets a lucky shot on my right side. Kyo hitting me finally snapped me out of it. It also left me disoriented. He got another jab at my left shoulder. I tried getting a another punch in, but instead of blocking, he grabbed my arm, whipped me around, and pulled my hands behind me, but before he pulled me all the way in, I wanted to get him, so I stuck my foot up as if to kick him in the face. Of course I missed, but I managed to hit his shoulder enough to get him to loosen his grip, and I kept pushing through the kick and managed to knock him down. I didn't waste any time getting down and pinning him.

"I win!"

"Is that so?" he mimicked me. Before I even realized what was going on, he flipped me up and over him, and rolled back so he was on top this time. Sadly, he was much stronger than me, so when he pinned my arms, I knew I had no hope left. I sighed, but heard someone sigh at the same time. I looked up and noticed Yuki had finally reached us.

"Hi," I said, still pinned. "How are you?"

"Just fine. It doesn't seem like you could say the same, though Ms. Takahashi."

"Eh. I'll manage." I looked around Kyo's head and looked up at the sky. I gasped with surprise.

"What? You ok?" Kyo asked, seeming worried, as if he'd done something.

"Move."

"What?"

"Your head. Move it. Lay down. Yuki! Come here. Lay down! Look!" As they lay down on either side of me, I pointed up at the sky. "Can you see it?"

"What am I looking for, exactly?" Yuki asked.

"Just keep looking." I waited for a moment as they kept searching.

"There's nothin' there," Kyo said obviously bored.

"Stupid cat. If you had any intention span, you might actually find it."

"Hey!-" Kyo began, but I cut him off.

"Actually, he's right. There isn't anything there. At least not that I've found." They both sat up and stared at me with equal looks of confusion. "Just because there's nothing of beauty, doesn't mean you shouldn't look."

"Who's that?" Yuki asked.

"It's me. I actually feel pretty proud of that saying, because that was _totally_ on the spot."

"He means who's that walking toward us," Kyo informed me. I sat up, ending up shoulder to shoulder with them, and looked where they were looking. It didn't take me long to realize who it was; the in-sync walking, identical loose ties, the one ear bud in on opposite sides so they could hear each other, the black hair with dye in it to make it look green where it shined to match their eyes.

"It's Hikaru and Hikari Sasaki. Their friends of mine." I felt Kyo tense at Hikaru's name. I raised my hand in a wave, and Hikari excitedly waved back, but Hikaru just raised and dropped his hand like he didn't want to be here. I knew why. He out-of-the-blue-kisses me earlier today, and now I'm sandwiched between two attractive young men, neither of which was him. I wasn't sure if Hikari knew; she probably did, I'd be amazed if she didn't. She was a better actress than Hikaru though. When they reached us, Hikari kept smiling and sat down in front of me, while Hikaru remained standing.

"Hey sexy, what's up?" she asked, making Yuki and Kyo redden a bit, and me laugh.

"Not much sexy what about you?" That made them redden even more. Hikari noticed.

"Oh relax. We're practicing for the promise we made," she explained totally losing them. I sighed, and got up to recite our promise with her.

"We hereby swear, if my best friend is being hit on by a drunken, homely man in a bar, I shall pretend to be her homosexual lover, in order to protect her from the previously mentioned drunken, homely man." This had Kyo looking like he wasn't sure if he should laugh or just think I'm weird while Yuki only smiled. It also actually got Hikaru to smile a little. I made the mistake of calling him out on it and starting the snowball.

"Ha! You smiled!" His smile disappeared.

"Well I was smiling a majority of the day. Emphasis on _was_."

"And may I ask you to _finally_ say what is bothering you? I swear, you were bad after first period, then better, now worse," Hikari asked. _So she doesn't know._

"Oh, I believe Ari-chan knows _very_ well what it was."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, threatening him with my eyes not to tell.

"Oh. Well, well, _well_. Keeping secrets now, are we?"

"_Hikaru_."

"Everyone has secrets, as do we. Shall I fill everyone in?" I grabbed him by the knot in his tie and dragged him away, leaving everyone bewildered. We rounded the corner of the restrooms before I let him go.

"Having fun?" he asked sarcastically.

"I _was_, until you decided to make an _ass_ of yourself! What the hell was that about?" I think he could tell he'd made me pretty upset, so he stopped with the sarcasm.

"Okay, I'm sorry. That wasn't cool."

"No, it wasn't."

"Why does it matter if they know?"

"Because _I _don't know!" I shouted, hoping we were far enough away that the others wouldn't hear.

"Don't know what?"

"Anything! Them! You! Me!" This conversation was giving me a headache already.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that," Hikaru said, putting one hand behind his neck, and one in his pocket. "I don't even really know why that happened. I just," he sighed. "I just wasn't thinking. Then I saw that _guy_ and you leaving together, and I got pissed. What's with him, anyway? I'm feeling some seriously hatred from him."

"It's because when he found me outside, I was upset because I was confused, and he tends to overreact when he's mad," I explained, leaving out the part where he threatened to kill him.

"So what are you guys doing out here anyway?"

"Oh my god! I totally forgot! We gotta go! Sorry! Bye!" We ran back over to where the others were sitting, but I noticed Yuki wasn't there.

"Where's Yuki?"

"I believe he went to the bathroom," Hikari answered.

"Shit, we gotta go" I said, earning a half snort/half laugh from Hikari. "You, are immature." I think that only made her laugh harder.

"I know! Hey, there he is," she said between laughs.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"Stupidity," I said.

"Shit," Hikari said at the same time. "Twinning for the win!" she yelled, pumping her fist in the air.

"Awesome, but we gotta go. We need to get to the market before it closes. Bye guys!" I said, grabbing Yuki and Kyo's arms and dragging them away.

_Hikari & Hikaru…_

(DHT Listen to Your Heart techno)

"Well that seemed to well. Ish." Hikari said. "Although I must wonder if Yuki only went to the restroom to listen in on your conversation. How'd you do?"

"Pretty well I think. She said she was confused, but she also seemed very, _very_ vulnerable." They both stopped their happy smiling and waving good-bye to look at each other, bright green eyes glinting. Hikari smoothed out her black and white dress that few would recognize as cosplay as Eruka from Soul Eater, which was exactly why she loved it.

"Hmm. That could definitely help us. Kyo is for the most part out of control, reckless. Yuki will dig himself into a hole unless he learns to relax and stop being a child; Ari-chan won't be able to deal with the arguing, but him saying childish things like 'stupid' so often will drive her positively insane. Their constant fighting will make matters even worse. They've screwed themselves over before it even began," Hikari contemplated out loud.

"But they both care about her a lot. They would _change_ for her." _I know I would._ Hikari pursed her lips, and linked arms with Hikaru.

"Well then we have work to do."

"I believe we do."

**O. M. F. G. I JUST LOOKED AT ALL MY VIEWS AND I AM ASTOUNDED! :D Then, I realized something. I have 362 views (1:14 AM 8/13/12) and 4 people who reviewed… WHAT IN THE HELL IS THIS?! I need feedback people! Feedback is like my Pez; I can't get enough. I want grammar errors pointed out and overly OOC moments acknowledged! I need to know this stuff guys! Seriously. If you hate it, let me know what you hate! I like hate! It means that I can only improve. And by the by, I want to apologize for Kyo seeming OOC every now and then. It's easy to write Arisu's part because I have her think kind of like I do, therefore, easier. Kyo is a whole other matter; I can barely get inside his head at all. I've only seen the anime, but I would like to read the books and plan on doing that soon, but in the anime you get to see very little of Kyo's mind so I don't have a real good feel for him yet. I am a very logical, quiet person, so someone violent and outspoken like Kyo is difficult for me to wrap my head around. I'm doing my best, & I'm asking my brother about what he would say sometimes because he's more outspoken then me, so I hope that will make it a little better. I hope that you liked seeing the darker side of Hikaru and Hikari, I've been really excited to write this part for a while now! I hope you liked the music I picked out as well, I made sure to listen to it at full blast (with my eyes closed because I'm awkward, and I'm home alone, so why not?) a few times before I was sure I wanted it. Sorry for writing an author's letter instead of an author's note! It's easier so say all this at once than saying a piece at a time! ~Stormy:3**


	7. Chapter 7

_**Hello my **_**_habitués! Do you like my new, fancy word? It means a devotee, like a fan. I tried to find a word that was sophisticated enough for your guys' standards, but not something awkward like disciples. Ugh, _****disciples. ****_I don't even like the _****sound****_ of that word; it bothers me, and if someone called me a disciple I would kinda hate them forever, so I won't torture you guys like that. Wow, I'm off topic. Anyhow, I made a playlist for Arisu! It's not of the songs I used in here (hmm… that is a good idea though…); it's just songs that she would like. I know the songs seem kinda random, but Ari likes songs for the music, not necessarily for the vocals or the message. She knows what she likes and that's all there is to it. I'm having link issues, so just go on YouTube & search 'Arisu Takahashi' & it'll show up. ~Stormy:3_**

We managed to make it to the market right before it closed, and got what we needed for dinner, plus I managed to grab some hair bleach, color stripper, and blue hair dye (stupid brown roots), and other things we'd need. When we finally got home I made dinner, and I had to hand it to myself; it was pretty damn good.

"This is simply delightful, Arisu. My palate has never been as pleased as it is now," Shigure commented, further inflating my ego.

"The same goes for me Ms. Takahashi," Yuki said with a smile. Kyo only nodded in agreement because he was too busy stuffing his face, which was compliment enough.

"Thanks. Now my ego will forever be over inflated," I joked, then heard a knock on the door. "I'll get it!" I ran over to the open the door, and at the door was Hatsuharu Sohma. I shouldn't have been surprised, they are family after all. After a moment of staring at each other, wide-eyed, I spoke. "Oh, hi! Come on in." I stepped aside as he removed his shoes, and practically power walked ahead of me into the dining room.

"Oh, hello Haru! I wasn't expecting to see you this evening," Shigure said.

"Could I ask you guys something?" Hatsuharu asked; when I came from the door to stand by him, I saw him pointing one hand at me, trying to hide it with the other.

"Do want some dinner? It's tempura donburi," I offered, walking past him toward the kitchen.

"Um, no thanks, uh…"

"Takahashi Arisu. You can call me Ari." I said, retaking my seat at the table.

"So, Shigure, like I was saying, could I talk to you-" he started.

"Oh! Wait a second!" I got up and acted like I was going to walk past him, but at the last second, I grabbed him, and pulled him in for a hug from behind.

"Shit!" he yelled, jerking away. Then he, like many others before him, was lost.

"Scared ya, didn't I?" I said, grinning like a fox. "I'm a freak and proud of it. I know about everything; including you, so don't bother with the 'Could I talk to you alone?' crap." I walked over to my seat to clear my dishes, and walked away to the kitchen, hoping to give him a moment to process things.

"Shigure-" Hatsuharu started.

"We can't seem to explain it either. Maybe she's just a very special girl."

"You god damn perv! What the hell is wrong with you?!" I heard Kyo yell, and I stifled a giggle as I walked back into the room.

"Ok, so, I figure you guys are gonna have some import stuff to talk about, so I'm gonna be in my room. See ya!"

"Her _room_?" I heard Hatsuharu whisper-yell.

"Heard that!" I yelled from the top of the stairs. "Yes, _my_ room. I happen to _live_ here. Hope that cleared some things up!" I ran up to my room and changed into a black tank-top and guy-shorts, grabbed the dye and bleach, and headed to the bathroom. After finishing with the color stripper and bleach, I tried to find some hair ties, to hold part of my hair in place as I did the separate dye jobs.

_ Crap. I think I left mine at moms._ I thought. _I wonder what they'd do if I came down with blonde hair… _I walked out of the bathroom and headed for the stairs.

"Hey do you guys have any hair ties?" I yelled, not yet within their range of sight.

"Why the hell would we have hair ties?" Kyo said from the kitchen.

"Touché," I finally walked out from behind the wall. "Then to you guys have some ribbon or something? I could really use some right about now." I was disappointed when none of them looked up except for Hatsuharu.

"Nice look," he commented. "Did you ever consider leaving the roots like that and dying the rest black?" At that, everyone else finally looked up. I laughed at their stunned expressions.

"What? You guys never seen a blonde before? Wow. I thought you would be used to it with Hatsuharu around. Or, well, I guess you have white, not really _blonde_ hair, huh?"

"Call me Haru," Haru said with a smile. "But seriously, consider the black with white roots."

"Sure thing. But like I was saying, do you guys have ribbon or string or something?"

"There should be some in the drawer next to the sink," Shigure answered. I managed to find some old ribbon, probably meant for wrapping presents, but it would do.

"Well gentlemen, next time I see you, I will no longer be blonde. Be strong for me!" I said dramatically.

"Yeah whatever," Kyo said, still shoving food in his face.

"Shut up," I told him, momentarily breaking character. "Like I was saying, be strong! We will meet again! Adieu!" I finished with a flourish of my hand, and bowed and backed out of the room to the stairs, earning a couple laughs. In about an hour and a half, I was finally done. I also had a really bad craving for ice cream. When I walked back down stairs I found the boys minus Shigure watching TV.

"Your lovely Ari-chan has returned! I just made your day better," I said getting smiles from ever one, even Kyo.

"Gasp; Kyo is that a smile I see? See guys? I wasn't kidding. Kyo's day just got better." I walked past them still in my tank top and shorts, both of which now had white and blue spots on them, especially my shirt. I began humming, and then quietly singing Lights by Ellie Goulding (one of my favorite songs in English) to myself as I looked through the freezer, trying to find ice cream.

"You show the lights that stop me, turn to stone. You shine it when I'm alone. And so I tell myself that I'll be strong and dreaming when they're gone, cause they're calling-" I finally found the ice cream and turned around and saw the three boys all leaning to the side so they could see in the kitchen and they were all looking at me, stopped singing mid-lyrics, and my eyes widened.

"What?" I asked, getting no response. "What?! Stop looking at me like that!" More staring. "What the hell guys? I swear I'm gonna start crying if no one tells me what's going on that I'm not seeing." Yuki was the first to snap out of it.

"Sorry Ms. Takahashi. I guess we were all simply enjoying your beautiful singing," he said with a smile.

"He's right, you know. You're really good. No one's ever told you that before?" Haru asked.

"Well, no. I've never really sang in front of anyone before. I didn't really think you could hear me from in there," I said with a small smile, an embarrassing blush creeping its way into my cheeks.

"What was that you were singing? I've never heard it before," Yuki said.

"Oh, it's a song my cousin Tessa, she lives in America, showed me. It's called Lights, and it's by a singer named Ellie Goulding." I said, locating a bowl and spoon. "I've been taking American English, so I'm able to understand what most of it means."

"Oh. I wasn't aware you had a cousin in America," Yuki said. "Do you get to see her often?"

"Not really," I answered honestly. "I really only got to see her when her parents could afford a plane ticket for me. Most of the time we would talk with webcams, her at home, and me at the library. I remember beating up her boyfriend last time I was there. Unlike my epic battle with Kyo, I actually won."

"That, I would've liked to see," Kyo said.

"Fought Kyo, huh? How'd you do?" Haru asked a smile on his lips.

"Got pinned, only after pinning him; for about half a second."

"How'd you manage to pin him?"

"Tried to kick him in the face before he got my hands tied behind me, I missed and hit his shoulder, but he loosened his grip, so I kept kicking and he lost his balance. I managed to sort of pin him but he flipped me. Apparently, self-defense classes don't help you with someone with Kyo's skills."

"Why'd ya take self-defense classes? What good are they?" Kyo asked.

"They're the reason this," I held up my still bandaged, but on-the-mend hand. "Isn't my face."

"Man, what'd Kyo do to you?"

"Hey! Why do you assume it was me, huh? You tryin' to say something?!" Kyo yelled.

"Hey! I'm tryin' to say something! _Calm the heck down! _Jesus Christ, do you guys not stop fighting? You all need couples counseling. And Kyo didn't do this, it was just an accident," I lied. I didn't want to explain everything to him; it's not like I didn't like Haru, he's nice and all, but it felt like he was watching every move I made. It creeped the hell outta me.

"More like that stupid cat needs, counseling, period," Yuki said snidely.

"No! Ok, see, that's what I meant. The childish name calling is getting old already! So are the _snide_ little side comments that just _have_ to be made!" I felt a second headache coming on. "Have you guys ever heard the saying 'If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all'?" I groaned and covered my face with my hands. "Ugh! Why do I even have to tell you this? You guys are young men, not babies, so don't make me treat you like them!" When I finished my rant, Yuki and Kyo were silent and Haru was grinning and gave low whistle.

"Wow. Never seen anyone yell at them like that. You got guts. I like that. Well, I'll just be on my way. Later." He let himself out, leaving Yuki and Kyo staring at me, and me staring right back. I was still fuming so I just grabbed the bowl of ice cream, basically threw the tub back in the freezer, and went to make an attempt at unwinding in my room.

_Yuki…_

_ She's right._ He didn't want to admit it, but there was no avoiding it. They were being childish; squabbling like children. He still hated Kyo with a burning passion, but he would no longer show it in front of Ms. Takahashi. Around her, he felt normal, like he was like everyone else. He didn't want to risk losing that, because if he did, he was sure he would go completely mad.

_Arisu…_

(Fall For You- Secondhand Serenade)

_ I can_not_ believe I did that! I totally flipped a bitch on them. They're probably arguing over who hates me more now. _I shoved my over-ear headphones cord into my IPod and began blasting my music while lying on the floor, seeing no reason to get up. Despite the loud music, my headache slowly began to fade. I allowed the music to take over, letting myself to drown in it like I had many times before. It had taken me a long time to gather enough money for my precious IPod; years of keeping change from shopping, of putting water in with moms booze to make it last longer. It all paid off in the form of a fourth generation IPod touch. I must have fallen asleep, because I woke with a start to a different song and someone shaking my shoulders. I pulled the head phones off my ears, and sat straight up, hitting heads with whoever was shaking me.

"Ouch! Crap! What the hell?" I said, blinking at the bright lights that were now on. I heard whoever I hit groan, and saw it was Kyo sitting a little behind me.

"Can I _help_ you?" I said, sounding a little more pissed than I'd intended.

"Hey! It ain't my fault! You're the one who was passed out on the floor! How's that gonna look?" he snapped back.

"Ugh, I don't even care right now. My head hurts too much to care," I said, lying back down and putting my headphones around my neck, and now my head was right next to his legs. "Like I said, can I help you?"

"Well, uh, about earlier. I, well, me and tha- um, Yuki, we shouldn't of-" I smiled at his attempt at apologizing.

"Please don't tell me you're apologizing. I'm the one who totally flipped a bitch on you two. It's not your guys' fault," I said, finally adjusting to the light so I was able to see into his copper-red eyes with my indigo ones. They say the eyes are the window to the soul, and Kyo's seemed guarded, like he had so much he wanted to keep hidden. I sat up to get my IPod and change the song, but when I turned back to look at Kyo, I didn't realize how close this made us; there was only about an inch or two between us. I could see his eyes really well now; they were guarded, but not vulnerable. He was strong. He'd obviously been through a lot, or else he wouldn't have be so guarded, or so strong. I could feel my blush creep into my cheeks at the same time his did. I almost began to close the gap, _almost,_ but he got up abruptly.

"I gotta go," he said, quickly leaving.

_Kyo…_

_ What the hell am I doing?! _Kyo asked himself, retreating to his room and throwing himself down on his bed. She was right there, looking right at him. Any guy who knew anything wouldn't have hesitated to kiss her, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He just… he didn't even know. Panicked maybe? But why would he panic? It's just Ari. _Sheesh… this is so damn stupid…_

_Arisu…_

"Morning," I said once I got downstairs. "Slave! Make me food!" I yelled at Kyo, before promptly flopping down on the couch. I heard him mumble something about, "damn game."

"Hey Kyo, do you smell that?" I asked.

"No," he responded, raising an eyebrow.

"Exactly. Now stop complaining and get in the kitchen and make me food!" I saw Yuki come downstairs looking as tired as me.

"I assume this is what you meant about him being your slave for a day?" he asked.

"Yep. This is gonna be the hardest day of his life."

"Then you must plan on working him pretty hard if you're going to beat wrestling bears in the mountains for four months."

"I didn't wrestle bears!" Kyo shouted from the kitchen.

"I believe I'm out of the loop on this. When was Kyo in the mountains for four months?" I asked, very curious and now more awake.

"Kyo was training in the mountains for four months with his master a while back. It was shortly after that that he moved in with us," Yuki clarified.

"Really? That's so cool! That must have been really hard; I know I probably would've died of exhaustion before the first day was over," I said, totally serious. I'm like Rin, I'm healthy (ish), but I don't work-out or anything. The only muscles I have are in my legs from waking up late and then sprinting to school almost every morning. "Slave! Hurry up! Me hungry!"

"Shut up!" Kyo yelled back at me.

"You shut up!" I shouted, like I was playing the five-year-old-copy-me-game.

"I told you first!" he argued, sticking his head through the door way.

"Yeah, well you're my slave so that's _too god damn bad_, isn't it?" I retorted, earning a kinda scary glare but finally silencing him, and making Yuki smile more than I'd ever seen him smile before noon. After a while, Kyo stiffly walked out.

"Food's done." He said, before walking away. I walked after him over to the table to find enough okayu and miso soup for all of us. It was actually pretty good. After eating and clearing our dishes our dishes, I sat back down as Kyo and Yuki got ready to leave.

"Ya comin' or what?" Kyo said, waiting for me to get up. I stuck my arms up in response.

"Carry me!"

"No way in hell! Ya gotta be kiddin' me!"

_ "Slave..."_ I taunted. He only scowled and probably swallowed his pride before coming over and bending over for me to get on for a piggyback. "Yay!" I hopped on and he carried me outside. Yuki was outside waiting.

"How long does… it… take…" he trailed off as he stared. He didn't laugh, but I swear every one of his face muscles tensed as he just turned away and began walking, but I swear I could see him just barely shaking with laughter.

"What?" I asked. "You ain't never seen someone giving someone else a piggyback ride? You got a problem with that? Come at us bro! We'll kick your ass!" I had to make him laugh; now my morning wouldn't be complete until I did. I saw his hands clench, and I could tell all of his muscles flexed by how stiffly he was walking. _I will break you…_

I pulled out my IPod and headphones and began blaring House of the Rising Sun by Pip (bless his bowties).

"Do ya mind? I'd like to be able to hear in the future if ya don't mind!" Kyo said irritably as I began lip synching. I understood a majority of the words, and the others I'd memorized from listening to it so often.

"Yuuuuukiiii….. you know ya wanna turn around and seeeee it," I tempted. Sadly, he didn't seem to care. I sighed in temporary defeat and slumped over, resting my chin on Kyo's shoulder. _Hmm…_ I slowly got off Kyo's back, but I quickly shoved my finger to my lips to tell him to be quiet as he breathed a sigh of relief. I walked forward, ever so quietly; until I was right behind Yuki. I waited for his arm to swing forward before I gently but quickly jabbed him in the side and wiggled my fingers. Finally, a small gasp of laughter escaped his lips.

"Yes! I finally made the almighty Price Yuki laugh!" I yelled to the heavens while laughing myself. He completely ignored me and turned away to keep walking, but not before I saw a slight blush creep across his face. Suddenly, Kyo was behind me.

"Nice one," he said with a nod of approval. "Not easy to catch him off-guard." I hopped back up on Kyo's back and he began walking again toward school. Yuki didn't say anything the rest of the way.


	8. Chapter 8

I barely lifted a finger for the rest of the day; aside from normal class stuff and eating lunch, Kyo did everything for me. He wasn't happy about it, but a bet is a bet. There was definitely _a lot_ of complaining, but we both managed to survive, which was an accomplishment in itself. Yuki remained pretty stoic for the rest of the day, only talking every now and then or when talked to. I was pretty sure he was mad at me, but I didn't get why. All I'd done was make him laugh.

He seemed to be in a better mood by the end of the day though, so that made me feel better. I didn't plan on apologizing, mostly because I had nothing to apologize for, so it'd be kinda pointless. We walked (well, Yuki and Kyo walked) back home in silence, but it wasn't an awkward silence, it was more like a relaxed silence.

When we finally got home, I decided to give Kyo a break after working so hard all day, and just went up to my room to relax and listen to music; then I remembered what happened last time I was up here listening to music. I stopped when I reach my door, sighed and waited for a moment, then decided to just forget about it and walked in, shutting the door behind me. _I have some homework… nah, I'll do it later. _To say the least, I'd become very good at procrastination. I grabbed my IPod and began playing Chouwa Oto by Kokia; the perfect relaxation music. I'd gotten this song from Rin. As you might've guessed, we didn't have a computer at my mom's house, so I got all my music from my friends; songs like Chouwa Oto from Rin, American and a lot of random songs from Maiko, and techno from the twins. I decided to leave the music quiet so I could hear if someone were to knock on my door. It was a good choice, because about an hour later, I barely heard someone quietly knocking. I removed my headphones and opened the door to find Yuki.

(Fall for You- Secondhand Serenade)

"Hey," I greeted him with a smile.

"Hello. I was wondering if you might like to go on a walk with me," he said with a smile that would make the Yuki Fan Club faint. "I have something I would like to show you."

"Sure!" we headed downstairs and outside. We began walking down a slightly worn trail I hadn't noticed before. "So where are we going?" I asked.

"My secret base," he answered with a sly grin.

"Cool. I might have to show you mine sometime," I said with an equally sly grin, to which he only cocked an eyebrow. "It's a secret!" I over-dramatized, putting my finger over my lips in a dramatic fashion, which he smiled at. "So what is your secret base, exactly?"

"It's a secret," he mimicked. I sighed and continued walking. After a minute, I could see the beginning of a clearing up ahead.

"Is that it?"

"Yeah," he answered, his smile growing larger. As we got closer, I realized it was a rather small clearing, but it looked really pretty; I could see the remaining sunlight filtering through the trees. As we got closer still, I could see it was a small garden.

"Wow, this is really pretty," I said, in awe of the perfect little space.

"I'm glad you think so." As I walked around, I noticed him looking at me. I paused.

"What?"

"Oh, sorry. It's nothing; _you_ just look really pretty right now." I could feel a blush raging in my cheeks as I looked at the ground, hoping to hide it. I thought I saw some kind of green shadow move in the trees, but my mental spotlight was now focused on Yuki who was walking around the plowed plot of ground toward me. I felt his fingers come up under my chin just like Hikaru had done just a day before, and I looked up at him to find him brushing away a few blue hairs that had fallen onto my face. I thought it would be impossible for me to blush any harder, but I swear I did right then. He only looked at me and smiled that smile that would make his fan girls scream.

_Kyo…_

He could see them leave from his vantage point on the roof. He'd seen the damn rat go down there enough times to know the path by heart. He couldn't see the clearing itself, but he could see the flashes of purple through the trees that he knew was Ari. Being her slave actually hadn't been that bad, but there was no way in hell he'd admit that; he'd gotten to spend a lot of time with her, and got to talk to her a lot too. There was also the matter of this morning, which made up for everything he'd had to do; it had been hard for him not to burst out laughing himself. With these thoughts, he slowly lulled himself to sleep.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

_Arisu…_

It was _so incredibly awkward._ After Yuki brushed my hair out of my face, we kinda stared at each other for a moment, and then he let go. After a while of standing there, we watched the sunset, and then headed back to the house for dinner, which was left-over tempura donburi. I didn't know where Kyo was though.

"Oh, he's probably just sulking on the roof," Shigure informed me, when I mentioned it.

"I'll bring him up some food."

"You don't have to do that," Yuki said, stopping me. "He can just come down to get some later."

"It's ok. I don't mind." I grabbed a plate of food and headed up to Kyo's room to climb onto the roof.

"Hey I brought you some-" I paused when he didn't move. I creeped a little closer, being careful not to slip. I quietly laughed when I realized his eyes were closed, and he'd fallen asleep. _Oh, idea! Idea! _I ran back down to my room, and began shuffling through what was still in bags. I found what I needed, and ran back to the roof, and began scratching away at the paper in my sketchbook. I started at his legs, one flat and one knee up, and worked up from there. I until I'd reached his arms, which were behind his head, that I was being watched. I gentle breeze floated through and I noticed the movement of Yuki's hair. He must've been standing on the railing of Kyo's balcony, because he had his head resting in his arms which were the only part of him on the roof. I put one finger to my lips and one up to tell him to wait a moment; he just nodded. I still had to do Kyo's face, which was always the hardest part of drawing anyone; I was trying to capture the innocence of the scene, but also to show that Kyo himself was in no way innocent. I smiled to myself; _Kyo, innocent. Yeah right._ It took me a while to finish, and in that time, Yuki had quietly wandered onto the roof, still awaiting my permission to speak.

"Done," I said, and even though it was hardly a whisper, Kyo mumbled something unintelligible, and slowly peeked him eyes open. When he realized we were both sitting there watching him his eyes snapped open wide and he sat up so fast, you would have thought I had a gun pointed at him.

"Hey! What the hell are ya doin'?"

"Drawing," I answered simply and honestly. "See?" I held out my sketchbook for him to see. He grabbed it and looked at my drawing of him, looking puzzled.

"So you just sat here and drew me while I was sleeping?! What kind of person does that?!"

I pointed at myself and said, "This kind of person. And relax, the moon was out, and I swear it was shining _right_ on you, so it was perfect. I mean, I don't think my drawing was _that_ terrible."

"If I may say, I think it was quite good, myself. I could tell how hard you were focusing," Yuki commented, which I appreciated.

"No- I mean- I wasn't sayin' it was bad or nothing, I was just-" Kyo started.

"Don't worry about it, its fine; I know what you meant," he handed my sketch book back, and I flipped back a page, which had a carefully drawn stargazer lily. The next page had a portrait of Maiko while she was dancing, tutu and all, one foot en Pointe, the other curved behind her, with one hand behind her, and one hand above her, which she was carefully watching. I felt them both leaning over my shoulders to get a better look.

"How long have you been drawing? You've gotten quite good at it," I heard Yuki say from my right.

"For as long as I can remember. I remember I used to hide them from my mom in all the weirdest places; taped under the sink, inside a lamp shade, or even in my shoes," I said, giggling at the memories. I stopped look at my drawing to look at both of the smiling faces next to mine, and I smiled more.

_Hikari…_

(House of the Rising Sun-Pip)

_ At least nothing happened… yet,_ Hikari found herself thinking as she left the woods and headed back to her house and to Hikaru. She knew for a fact that she was the brains of this operation; she had the smarts and the inside ideas, Hikaru had social skills and the appearance. She'd known Ari-chan for a long time, but Hikaru had known her longer; they were just made for each other! The tragic girl of the light who'd been hurt rescued by her dark prince charming, and there was also his equally (if not more) attractive and conniving twin sister. It was all just _too_ perfect.

As she walked down the sidewalk, she received some interesting looks from passerby; it wasn't surprising since she was wearing another cosplay from Soul Eater, Maka. The long dark jacket had helped her hide in the shadows in the trees. She pulled a Red Vines from a bag in her pocket and took a bite, and watched the way it moved as she walked. _Everything is going according to plan… _

_Arisu…_

We'd ended up staying up a majority of the night, all of it spent of the roof. We'd even gone and gotten blankets so we could stay up longer; of course Kyo didn't want one, since he had to be all macho and all. I'd gotten a chance to draw both of them a few more times, and they'd turned out pretty well; I'd gotten Yuki sitting with a blanket wrapped around him, looking at the stars, and Kyo when he got all excited when I asked him about his training in the mountains. It had been so much fun!

Waking up was a whole other matter. I knew Yuki and I had fallen asleep around four-ish on our blankets, but I wasn't sure about Kyo. He was awake when I woke up though.

I rolled over with my eyes still shut, not wanting to get up yet, and not yet realizing where I was. I sighed and opened one eye, expecting to see my alarm clock; instead I found myself staring at Kyo's leg. I remembered what happened but I stayed where I was and just sighed again.

"Morning," I said, untangling myself from my fuzzy green blanket.

"Hey. 'Bout time you woke up," Kyo said, looking down at me.

"Wait, what time is it? Where's Yuki?" I asked, looking around and realized we were missing one prince and one blanket.

"It's about ten. He woke up earlier and went to school. I figured you'd wanna sleep."

"Good idea," I said with a smile. "I'm gonna have a butt load of homework though from missing so much school lately. Stupid homework." Kyo just smiled at me.

"Don't enjoy my misery," I said sarcastically.

"Never said I was," he said still smiling.

"Shall we have another day of fun and doing whatever we please?" I offered. "Maybe you could teach me how to finally beat you," I kidded, budging his shoulder with mine.

"Like that would happen."

"Oh really? What if I were to push you off this roof?" I threatened.

"Wouldn't matter. You suck," he said, with a grin. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Well that wasn't very nice. Even if you are being _rude_, my offer still stands."

"I might just take you up on that offer," he said, just like I'd told him before.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

We entered the small ice cream shop, grateful for a break from the chilly outside air.

"One mint chocolate chip," I told the lady behind the counter.

"Same," Kyo said. I handed the lady the money and she brought us our ice-cream. We sat inside at one of the tables, not yet wanting to go back out into the cold.

"What do you want to do after this?" I asked, licking my ice-cream.

"I don't know; doesn't really matter to me." At that moment, my IPod in my pocket began singing Maiko's message tone.

_ "__Oh, well imagine; as I'm pacing the pews in a church corridor, and I can't help but to hear, no I can't help but to hear an exchanging of words. 'What a beautiful wedding! What a beautiful wedding!' says a bridesmaid to a waiter. 'And yes, but what a shame, what a shame, the poor groom's bride is a whore.'" _I grabbed my IPod from my pocket, opened my text app, and looked at the message.

_Where r u?! There's this thing called 'school' people our age tend to attend it! 3TinyDancer3. _I quickly texted her back.

_I wasn't feeling too great._ It wasn't a lie, I was tired, really tired. _I decided to stay home and Kyo stayed as well to make sure I was ok._ Right when I pressed the send button, I realized what I'd done. The only person who knew I lived with Yuki and Kyo was Hikaru and Hikari. I barely had time to think 'Shit!' before my phone began ringing.

"Hell-"

"What in the beautiful mother of fuck are you talking about?!" Maiko shouted from the other end of the phone, loud enough for Kyo to hear. "Do not, I repeat, _do not,_ tell me you are talking about Kyo Sohma, the attractive, temperamental young man in our first period class! Oh my god, Ari! Holy crap! What do you mean he _stayed home?!_ Is he at your house?!" she finally paused and I smiled, because she didn't know that Kyo could hear her, and because Kyo paled and scowled after hearing that.

"Maiko. Calm yourself. Ok? It's no big deal. There was a special set of circumstances. I am just staying at their house."

"Are you _kidding_ me?! You sneaky, lucky little _bitch_! Oh my god, I _hate_ you right now! Wait, doesn't _Yuki_ live with Kyo? Holy crap! It's like a reverse harem! Why didn't you tell me? And what special set of circumstances?" I rolled my eyes.

"Well you didn't ask," I said, avoiding her last question, while Kyo just watched what was going on, looking kind of confused.

"Well I'm not just going to ask, 'Hey Ari, by any chance to you happen to be living with _two of the most attractive guys in our school?!'"_ I had an idea.

"Look Maiko, I'm still not feeling good- oh god- I think I'm gonna be- gotta go bye!" I grinned when I was done. "Well that's taken care of. She won't be harassing me for at least an hour."

"Who the hell was that, anyway?"

"Maiko Ijuin, a friend of mine. I don't think you'd know her." Kyo just nodded.

"What the hell was she yelling 'bout, anyway?"

"She asked why I wasn't in school, and I hadn't realized that I'd neglected to inform her that I no long reside in my mother's home, until it was too late. She kinda freaked," I explained, and he again just nodded. "She also said it's like a reverse harem," I added, a grin growing on my face.

"Reverse harem?! What the hell does she know?!" Kyo exclaimed, jumping up from his seat. I partially jumped across the table to cover his mouth with my hands like he had when I'd first learned his secret. I looked around and noticed the people watching. I kept my hands over his mouth as I led him out.

"Come on Kyo-time to go- where should we go next? Let's go out here," I said quickly, grabbing my things and leading him out as everyone inside watched as he struggled. I finally released him once we'd walked a few steps away from the shop.

"Hey! What the hell was that for?" he shouted at me.

"Well if you hadn't noticed, you were causing a bit of a scene, so I decided it was time to go," I answered, not really wanting to yell.

"Yeah, well your friend started it!"

"And I ended it. End of yelling, end of issue, _end of story_," I said, and he finally seemed to simmer down.

"Anything in particular you would like to do next?" I asked before an awkward silence could set in. "You could teach me those moves so I can kick your ass."

"Ha! I'd love to see you try!"

"Hey, I got you pinned last time!"

"Yeah, for like two seconds! I still totally beat you!"

"Well if you actually taught me something, I might stand a chance!"

"Fine! Let's go!" we jogged over to the park where we'd been last time and stood by some trees to be better protected from the wind.

"Ok, stand here," he told me, and I did as he said while he got in front of me and put his hands up and together. "Just hit my hands, then hold it." I struck out then held the position, as began adjusting me.

"See, here, you gotta rotate your arm like this. Spread your feet a little," he said, tapping my feet with his. "It'll help you balance." I felt his hands on my side. "And make sure you turn like this," I did as he said, and could feel a slight blush in my cheeks, but tried to take a few deep breaths to keep it away. "Ok, now try again." I struck out again, thought this time taking his advice.

"Nice, see, you get more force when you rotate like that. You're getting better," he said with a small smile. We both stood up at the same time, and we realized how close we actually were, just like what had happened in my room, and I knew from experience so I quickly moved to step back.

"Sorry, I-"

**MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! This is especially for you for NO REVIEWS IN TEN DAYS! What is this people?! Seriously! Haha I felt the need to punish you, so I did :D Ok, my spell check is saying my giant mwahaha is ok but my Haha is not…. Wft? Anyhow, reviews are my PEZ, so gimme some! And HAHA you totally thought Yuki was going to kiss Ari didn't you?! I'm just an evil person like that! Besides, Yuki is a gentleman. Ok, um, what el- OH YES! Check out my other story, A Secondhand Serenade! I think you guys will like it if you appreciate the underapreciated beauty and smartness that is & 0%^ Haha, me not gonna tell you CAUSE YOU HAVE TO READ IT! And what should happen next? Something evil or something adorable? ~Stormy:3**


	9. Chapter 9

**To:**

**The Amendable Snow Freak:** I WILL NOT calm down, I WILL have a cow and I WILL NOT pull a Shigure on you. That is actually where I kinda got bored of writing so I was like "Ha ha, I'll be a terrible person. Why not?"

**GoldenxDreamer: **Pretty excited right now, huh?

The look. That was all it took. He had to tell Akito; not necessarily about the look, but about her. It was his duty to the head of house, whether he wanted it to be or not. He knew he would be angry, but he'd rather have Akito's rage directed at him than at them if he found out on his own. He would be sure to inform Shigure of it as well, but only after it was over and done.

_Arisu…_

"Sorry I-"

"No," I stopped. "I mean, it's fine. N-never mind. You ready to go?" Kyo asked, looking kind of strange.

"Yeah, fine by me," I said, and we began walking back to the road. "Do you want to just head home? It'll be quite a while before we need to pick up Yuki."

"Fine by me," he said, and we turned right when we reached the sidewalk. I'd been meaning to ask him something for a while.

"Hey, what do you think is wrong with me?"

"What are you talkin' about?"

"I mean, when I hug you guys, you don't _poof,_ and that's not normal. So I've been trying to figure out what must be wrong with me for that to be."

"The-There's nothing wrong with you," he said, sounding uncomfortable. "Why would ya think something stupid like that?" _And there's the Kyo I know._

"Thanks, but still. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but it's a different thing, and I can't help but think why, ya know?" I said, and he just sighed. "Oh my gosh! I know what we should all do this weekend!" I said, suddenly totally off topic for no specific reason. "We should all go swimming! I know this great place that almost no one goes to, cause it's kinda sketchy looking-"

"Are you serious!? You want us to go to a _sketchy_ swimming pool? What the hell!?"

"Let me finish! It looks kinda sketchy on the outside, but the inside is so nice, and it's really cheap too,"

"No thanks."

"Aww, come on!"

"No way. I hate swimming."

"I probably should of figured that. But it'll be fun! They even have a big climbing wall you can jump off of, and a rope swing, and a slide, and it's really cool!"

"No."

"Fine. Jeeze," I said, but not giving up. We continued to walk home, talking on and off again (mostly me trying to convince him to go swimming). I don't know where he went when we got home, but I went to watch TV, and texted people.

_Hey, swimming. This Saturday. Everyone. _I texted to Rin, Maiko, Hikari, and Hikaru.

_Cool :)_ Rin texted back.

_YAY! EXCITED FACE! =D 3TinyDancer3 _Maiko said.

_Fun!_ I got from both of the twins. I heard the door opened and assumed it must be Shigure.

"Hey," I said, still watching TV.

"Hi," I heard Yuki say.

"Yuki? What are you doing here?" _Shouldn't he still be in school?_

"They let out early because there was a staff meeting," he explained, and I nodded. "So how did you two spend your day?"

"We got ice cream, and kinda just walked around being a general nuisance to the public, you know the usual. Then decided to head home. We were going to come by and pick you up later, but I guess that isn't necessary now."

"You got ice cream? In this weather?" he asked, a slightly incredulous look on his face.

"Why not? It was an indoor place, so it's not like it was cold," I explained, like it was a perfectly rational thing to do. I heard a knock at the door.

"I got it!" I hopped up and went to open the door, and then I was on the ground.

"Hey! You're Arisu, aren't you?" said a small blond boy who was now sitting on my legs while I was propped up on my elbows. "I guess what Haru told me was true! You must be pretty special! I'm Momiji by the way."

"That would be correct," I said with a smile, and stuck out a hand. "Nice to meet you."

"What the hell is goin' on down here?" I heard Kyo say as he came down the stairs. "I heard a thud."

"Nothin' much," I said, looking at him upside down, since I was still on the ground and he was behind me.

"Hey! What the hell are you doin' here you little runt!? And why are you on top of her!?" he yelled, grabbing Momiji.

"Wah! Kyo's picking on me!" Momiji cried.

"Oh, Kyo, be nice," I said, finally getting up.

"But he-" I snapped my fingers in his face.

"He-" I did it again.

"Would you-" I snapped with both hands in his face.

"No," I said, looking him straight in the eyes, and walked away as he reluctantly released Momiji, still kind of stunned.

"That was pretty impressive, Ms. Takahashi," Yuki said quietly as I walked by him.

"You'll be surprised how much people are like animals if you get right down to it," I said, and he smiled at the truth of my words. "Once you figure that out, it's not that hard."

"I believe you're right," he said, and began to head up to his room.

"Oh, and hey Yuki!" He stopped and turned around.

"Yes?"

"I was thinking about getting a couple friends and going swimming this weekend. Wanna come?"

"That sounds fun. I'd love to," he said with a smile, and continued upstairs. _One down, one to go._ Kyo would be a much harder nut to crack, so I decided to give it sometime.

"I'm going on a walk!" I said, grabbing my white knit hat from my room.

"Oh! Can I come?" Momiji asked excitedly, practically hopping like the rabbit he was.

"Fine by me. I'm actually going out to my old tree house," I said, and he just looked even more excited.

"You have a tree house!? That sounds so cool!"

"You have a tree house?" Kyo asked from the couch.

"Yeah. It's actually the place where I saw you for the… second time," I said after thinking for a moment (I'm not the faster thinker, ok!).

"What the hell!? You spying on me or something?"

"_Yes_, Kyo. I was _totally_ spying on you, because I have no life at all so I spent all my free time _spying_ on you," I said. "No, you were on the roof, and your hair isn't exactly the best camouflage, so it was hard _not_ to see you. Wanna come?" I said, pulling some boots on.

"Fine. Only to keep an eye on him," he said, with a glare at Momiji who stepped behind me so his glare wouldn't burn a hole in him. We all walked outside and I stopped and looked at the house.

"What are you staring at?" Kyo asked.

"I'm figuring out which direction to go. I think I remember the angle the house was at when I saw you… this way," I said, walking off into the trees.

"Wow! This is so cool! We're just like adventurers!" Momiji said, running around, but still staying with us.

"Does he ever run out of energy?" I quietly asked Kyo.

"Doubt it," he said _so_ optimistically.

"Hey, I think we're almost there," I said, kind of recognizing where we were. Then I saw the big piece of old metal roofing we'd used from an old shed in Maiko's yard to make a bridge. You almost wouldn't notice it since so much moss and dirt now covered it. "Come on!" I ran across the bridge and towards the tree house, and it didn't take long to reach it.

"Well, here it is," I said, as the guys caught up with me.

"Wow! That's really cool! Can I go up?" Momiji asked, looked practically ecstatic.

"Go ahead," I said, and he climbed up the ladder of planks nailed to the tree.

"Looks kinda small," Kyo said sounding very un-ecstatic.

"Well we were little. Now we just sit on the roof, mostly. Momiji would probably fit though," I said, not really minding his comment. "Well, come on! Let's go!" I said, following Momiji up the ladder. I heard Kyo follow behind me, but not after hesitating a second. When we got up him and I both hand to scrunch down quite a bit, and Momiji did too, but he had it better than we did.

"Here, follow me," I said, leaning against the railing, grabbing the roof, and stepping up onto the railing, so I was basically out of the tree house.

"What are you doin'!? You're gonna kill yourself!" Kyo said, looking like he wanted to stop me, but wasn't sure how to do it without knocking me down.

"I'm fine. I've done this more times than I can count," I said, easily hopping up onto the roof. I took off my hat, so I wouldn't lose it, and hung my head over the edge. "Coming?"

"Yeah!" Momiji said excitedly, and I helped him carefully pull himself up and over onto the roof.

"Wow! You can see everything! It's so pretty!" he said, seeming to (finally) relax and enjoy the view.

"Kyo, you coming? I guarantee it will be better than being bent into a pretzel down there," I said, hoping to tempt him up.

"Fine," he said, still not looking too happy. He climbed out just like I had, and sat down with Momiji and me.

"See you can see your house right there," I said, pointing out his house.

"Hey Arisu! Can we come back here and watch the sunset later?" Momiji asked.

"Fine with me. Maybe Yuki and Shigure will want to come." Kyo scowled, but Momiji smiled even bigger.

"It would be so cool if we came up here and repainted it and stuff! It'd be so pretty!" Momiji exclaimed, as we began getting down. "Maybe we could even do some construction like stuff and make the roof higher."

"Doesn't sound like a bad idea," I said, seriously considering it. I'd actually thought about doing that for quite a while, but as for the roof part, Hikaru alone was never enough muscle to do it. _Now it might actually be a possibility…_

When we got home, I decided I might as well make dinner early if we were going to get back out there by sunset. When I looked in the cupboards and fridge, they actually looked semi-full for a change. _Shigure must have gone shopping or something. I can't really imagine him doing actual work though._

I pulled out some dried soba and mirin to make zaru soba. It was a pretty simple dish, so it didn't take long to make.

"Guys! Dinner's ready!" I called out, and they all lumbered in, even Momiji, who was still almost vibrating with excitement. "I made zaru soba. I hope you don't mind the early dinner; we were thinking about going out to my old tree house to watch the sunset. You two are welcome to come if you want," I mentioned, looking between Yuki and Shigure.

"Oh, if only I could. I have so much work to do," Shigure said dramatically (as always).

"That sounds quite nice. I'd love to join you," Yuki said, a smile on his face as he started eating, while I could see Kyo scowling out of the corner of my eye.

"Wow Arisu! This is really good! You're a really good cook," Momiji said as he ate.

"Thanks. I try," I replied, glad they all seemed to be enjoying it.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"So this is it? It's really cute," Yuki said, grinning up at the tree house.

"Thanks. It's pretty small though so we need to pull a Kyo and sit on the roof," I said, and I could hear the, "Hey!" from above me.

"Oh, calm down. Did I say anything bad? No. Don't get defensive," I said, climbing up the ladder with Yuki right behind me, and got up to the roof.

"This is a really nice view you have here," Yuki commented as he carefully climbed up.

"Yeah, that's partially why I used to come up here all the time," I said, not really thinking.

"What's the other reason?" Momiji asked. Sadly, Kyo didn't say anything rude to distract him. There wasn't really much he could do just because he asked a question. I had to come up with something.

"Well, my mom wasn't exactly the nicest person. She always had a bit of a temper. When she got mad, I'd come up here so she could have alone time." Well, it wasn't _all_ a lie. "My mom and my dad haven't been together for a long time, so I couldn't go stay with him or anything." Also not a lie.

"That's really sad," Momiji said sympathetically.

"Eh. It could've been worse," I thought I saw Kyo flinch out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked at him, he looked fine. "I mean, I'm glad I have what I have, and I guess that's all that really matters now. I don't like dwelling on the past, especially when you don't have to, because then you can't be happy about of all the things you have now." _That is the sappiest speech I have _ever_ given._

"I think you're right. The past is past, so we need to focus on now and our future, right?" Momiji said, a small smile on his cute face.

"Exactly," I said, smiling back at him.

"Hey look! The sun's about to set," he said, back to his full, happy smile.

I began watching, and thought of this poem I heard. I hadn't realized I was mumbling until Kyo said something.

"Hey, if you're gonna talk at least do it loud enough for people to hear," he said, looking at me weird.

"What were you saying?" Yuki asked a little more nicely.

"Oh, I was just thinking out loud," I told him, not really wanting to say anything.

"What were you thinking about?" Momiji asked. _Of course someone had to ask._

"It was just this poem we had to memorize for English. We learned it last year, but I really liked it so I made sure I didn't forget it."

"Would you recite it for me? Please?" Momiji basically begged.

"Well, uh," I stammered, feeling awkward.

"What the hell's wrong with you!? Do you like making people do stuff they don't want to do!?" Kyo quickly yelled at Momiji, which wasn't surprising.

"Just beyond the sunset  
someone waits for me  
just beyond the sunset  
lies my destiny  
where the purple mountains  
lie in deep tranquility  
there I'll find the treasure  
of love eternally," I began reciting, and they all just watched as I watched the sunset.

"Just beyond the sunset  
waits someone so fair  
just beyond the sunset  
all alone they wait there  
their hair is golden  
the color of the sand  
their eyes sparkle in the night  
like diamonds in your hand  
just beyond the sunset  
lies a home for me  
where the world is peaceful  
like a paradise should be  
just beyond the sunset  
someday is where you'll find me," I finished, and finally turned to look at them.

"That really was lovely," Yuki said, smiling at me.

"Yeah, if you're into that boring poem stuff," Kyo said, looking at the ground.

"Of course someone like you couldn't appreciate it," Yuki said, no longer smiling.

"What are you saying you damn rat!?" I just rolled my eyes and grinned at Momiji, who grinned back at me.

The sun may have been going down, but it felt like things were looking up.

_Hatori…_

"Yuki didn't show up for his monthly check up. Again." Hatori said, not waiting for a, "hello."

"Well hello to you too, Ha'ri. He isn't in at the moment-" Shigure said from the other end of the phone

"Where would he be this late?"

"Well, he just went out with a few friends," Shigure said in an unconvincing tone.

"I'll be over in the morning," Hatori said, right before hanging up the phone. He already knew well enough what was going on. On Akito's orders he was to see what this, "Arisu," was like, and if necessary, make the problem go away. He knew they'd try to hide her, and they had good reason to.

**Sorry for taking a while to update. Did you like the poem? It's by David Harris, written in 1966. It's right here if you want to check it out poem/just-beyond-the-sunset/ AW SNAP *snaps* Hatori knows! Shit may be going down. I don't know if it will yet, because I haven't written it, we'll both just have to wait and see. Can you guess who was talking in the beginning? I believe it's pretty obvious. If you don't know, I am disappointed in you as a FB fan :( . I think that's it… so… yeah… ~Stormy:3**


	10. Authors Note!

**Sorry, I needed to say something really quick. I wanted to let you peoples know I'm looking for someone to draw my lovely OC, Ari. Or Arisu. Or Ari-chan. However you think of her. Anywho, I would love to get some people who want to do it. If you're interested, either review to this or go to my forum, That Awkward Child has Things to Say!, & let me know! I don't know if you need reminding, but she's about 5'3" (4" shorter han Kyo & Yuki, 5" shorted than Hikaru), black hair that starts at the base of her neck, then tapers down to about 3" longer in the front (A-lined), with a blue splattering in the front starting where her hair is parted on the right side (audience's left) & spraying out from there, only reaching the bottom in the very front part of her hair. She's not exactly curvy, but she's not thin, she's in the middle. She has indigo eyes. Not blue, not purple, INDIGO, like the color of a Indigo crayola crayon. Um, I think that's about it, you can dress her however you want, as long as it's not too girly. She doesn't like skirts a whole lot, so pants or shorts would be a good start. Sorry for being kinda nit-picky about the details, I just have kind of a certain image in my mind, but I can't draw for shit, so that would be a train wreck waiting to happen! One way I kind of imagine them is her inbetween them with them both leaning down and kissing her cheeks with Hikaru behind her with his head in his arms resting on top of hers. I don't know, that's kinda just how I know I would attempt to do it if I had any skills. I can draw bodies, but any sort of details end up looking like crap :P Thanks!**


	11. Chapter 10

_ Hatori…_

The car pulled up to the house at nine AM sharp. As he approached the house, he heard a rustle inside, and then all was silent. He knocked, and it was quickly answered by Shigure leaning against the door frame.

"Well hello Ha'ri. How are you today?" he said, trying to sound casual, but Hatori had known him too long to fall for it.

"Where is Yuki?" he asked quickly walking past him.

"I'm right here," Yuki said, coming out from the living room. They went to sit down and Hatori took out his stethoscope.

"So, anything interesting going on lately?" he asked, trying to sound like he was merely making conversation.

"No," Kyo said, sounding irritated while lounging on the couch, trying to look relaxed even though every one of his muscles was taut. "Why do you care?"

"Just asking," he said. Returning his attention to Yuki, listening to his breathing. The whole house was strangely quiet. Too quiet. He assumed the girl was upstairs, hiding somewhere. "Nothing at all? I heard you had a visitor." They all flinched a little except for Yuki, who remained perfectly still except for a slight widening of his eyes.

_Arisu…_

_I am_ freaking_ out._ _He's down there right now, and he should be done soon, right? I mean, how long does it take to give someone a check up? I've never been to a doctor, but how much could there be to check, _right?

I was sitting a corner of my room, trying to be as still as physically possible. I rested my chin on my knees, trying to relax. _What reason would he have to come upstairs into an unoccupied room?_

_Hatori…_

"Well, I believe we're done here. If you don't mind, I'll use your restroom and be on my way," he said, quickly getting up and heading upstairs before they could say anything. He walked by Yuki and Kyo's rooms, quietly walking toward the empty room. He listened for a moment, but didn't hear anything. He slowly slid the door open, and even though it was bright out, he couldn't see much since the blinds were pulled and the lights were off. He then noticed a small smear of blue in all the black.

"Hi."

_Arisu…_

I wasn't freaking out anymore. I was having a full blown panic attack. When the door slid open, every one of my muscles clenched as hard as they could, not making it very easy to hold my breath. I could see his face peeking through the door. I couldn't really tell what he looked like, since the room was still so dark. I saw his head fixate on where I was.

"Hi," I whispered, not bothering to hide anymore since it wasn't of any use.

"Hello." Considering how Yuki and Kyo had described him, he had sounded much scarier than he was. He had a very calming voice. I stood up.

"You must be Hatori. I'm Arisu," I stuck out my hand, and he shook it. "It's nice to meet you."

"Same here." _Formalities._ "Would you mind if I talked to you for a while?"

"Actually, would you mind if I talked first?" he nodded for me to continue. I sat down on my bed. "Well, I've heard about what you can do, and before you do anything, I want you to know I very much enjoy living here. Kyo really saved me from myself. Honestly, if you gave it maybe another couple months, if it weren't for Kyo, I probably wouldn't be here. Or anywhere, really." I saw his eyes widen just a little. "Ever since I got here, I've been feeling surer of myself as a person, and have been happier than I've ever been. So if you still need to do what you gotta do, then so be it. I just felt you should know that. But that's really not all-" I heard sets of footsteps pounding up the stairs, causing me to jump and my eyes to widen. My door slammed open, Yuki and Kyo still panting from their sprint. They looked at my expression, and they took it as a blank stare.

"What the hell did you do!?" Kyo shouted, grabbing the doctor by his collar. I grabbed at Kyo.

"Stop it! Let him go!" I wrapped my arms around his chest from behind, trying to pull him back.

"You didn't…" Yuki trailed off, his eyes widening.

"No he didn't, so let go!" I gave a heave right as Kyo let go, causing us both to fall on our butts. Kyo quickly turned around looking at me, his eyes searching my face.

"Wait, but, you looked-"

"Yeah, startled because you guys came running and slammed my door open. People tend to get startled when that happens," I said sarcastically, but I was smiling at both of them. Kyo stood up, and offered me a hand, which I took. I didn't let go when he tried to, and I stuck my other hand out towards Yuki, and he took it.

"Like I was saying," I said, looking back at Hatori. "This is my family now. If it weren't for them, I know I'd still be in a pretty dark place. Without them, I would be nothing," I could feel the tears at the edge of my eyes. "And they're all I could ask for and more. Even with the arguing, and the fighting, and the occasional childishness, I love them more than anything. And if you paid attention to what just happened, I hope you can realize this is a special set of circumstances." The doctor just nodded. He got up, gave me a small smile, and left. I let out a breath I hadn't noticed I'd been holding, and felt smile creep onto my face, and then I did the weirdest thing I could have done right then; I started laughing. I was still crying a little, so I probably looked terrible. The guys looked at me like I was crazy. I was still holding their hands, and I pulled them in to hug them both, one arm around each of their chests.

"Oh my god," I said quietly to myself. "Please tell me I was not the only one who was really, really scared right then." I felt them both hesitantly hug me back.

"Trust me, you weren't," Yuki said.

"For once, the damn rat's right. Don't do something that stupid again," Kyo said, but at the moment, I really didn't care.

"I won't. Promise," I said, just glad to still have them. I could see a flash on the walls in front of me. I looked up to see Yuki and Kyo glaring at whatever was behind us, and I saw Shigure holding a disposable camera.

"Kodak moment?" he said, now seeming to regret what he'd done. Both guys let go of me at the same time and began to step around me, but I was closer. They didn't realize it till it was too late; I grabbed the camera and shoved it into my shirt.

"It _will_ be developed. If you wish to do something about it, now is the time," I told them, a grin on my face. They both looked like they actually thought about it for a moment. They both sighed at me, and Kyo rolled his eyes.

"Do whatever the hell you want," Kyo said, with a slight glare that no longer had any effect on me (not that it had much of one to begin with). Yuki just sighed, gave me a small smile, and retreated with Shigure. I sighed, trying to slow my heart's pounding, and took the camera out and put it in a drawer with some of my clothes, and found my sketch pad. I always stashed it in weird places, mostly a force of habit, but I still didn't like it to be in an obvious places. I quickly switched the items, grabbing a pencil, and sat on my bed. I started with the jaw-line, working down to his collar, then back up to the bangs over his left eye, his nose, his lips, his eyes. When I looked up at my clock, it was eleven, and I was starving. I set my sketch pad under my covers; intending to edit the finer details later. Then I realized what day it was. _Saturday! Weekend! Swimming!_ I ran back into my room, grabbed my phone and texted everyone: _Pool in one hour!_ And ran back downstairs to find the guys.

"Hey, is swimming in an hour good for you?" I asked Yuki, finding him in the kitchen.

"It's fine by me," he said with a smile, and I looked around for Kyo. I checked the roof last, and of course that's where I found him.

"Hey, we're still going swimming. We're leaving in an hour, and you're welcome to join us," I said, coming up and sitting by him.

"No way in hell," he said bluntly.

"Well we're not in hell, so I believe that sentence in null and void. Please!?" I asked, grabbing his arm. "Please? Pretty please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?" I said, slowly beginning to crumple down with every word. "Please? For me? If you don't I shall die!" I said, sounding a lot like Shigure. "I'm dying! Please?" By this time, I was a couple pleases away from 'death.' "Please? Please?" I asked in whispers, then finally, 'dying,' still grasping his arm. I waited a minute, and he didn't budge. "Oh, come on. I've had a hell of a day, and I just wanna go swimming with you guys. I hate asking for things, except when I feel lazy, which is pretty often, but not the point. The point is I just wanna-"

"Fine," he said, not looking at me. "I'll go this one time."

"Thank you!" I said, throwing my arms around him. I heard whistle from below us, and saw Rin, Maiko, Hikari and Hikaru looking at us. I quickly let him go and frowned at them. "I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again. You, are immature," I told them and they just laughed at me. "What are you doing here anyway? I said in an hour, not twenty minutes," I asked, sliding off the roof onto a balcony.

"What? And _not_ come to make fun of you to no end- I mean, make sure this is a safe and stimulating environment for you? Never," Maiko said, a grin covering her face, and I sighed.

"I'll be down in a sec." I barely had time to open the door before they all walked in like they owned the place. I could practically feel Shigure's ears perk up. _Three, two-_

"Is everything all right?" his head poked around from the hallway.

"Friends, this is Shigure Sohma; he owns the house. Shigure, these are my _uninvited_ friends, Maiko Ijuin, Rin Fujioka, and Hikari and Hikaru Sasaki."

"Why am I last?" Hikaru asked, mocking offense.

"Ladies first," Maiko made a point of saying.

"You are _so_ sexist," he said

"As you can see, with them around, there is never ending pointless babble," I added, as they dispersed to look around. Shigure disappeared back around his corner to whatever he was previously doing, and I ran upstairs to find Yuki. I knocked on his door.

"Come in," I stepped into his room which was more dirty then I thought a room could possibly. It practically put my mom's house to shame.

"Just a warning, my friends decided to come early, so I would hide anything that you value, because otherwise, they will find it and use it to torture you in any way possible," I warned him, and he smiled at me.

"Ok. I'm guessing we'll be leaving sooner now?"

"I guess so. Well, I'm going to go get ready," said, and left with a wave. I quickly slipped out and ran into my room, hoping to not run into anyone on the way to avoid further harassment. I quickly put my bikini on and a tee-shirt and jeans on over, and threw anything else I would need in a bag, and then I realized the jeans were pretty big, and long. _These are _so_ not my pants._ I walked out, needing to pull up the pants every five seconds.

"Does anyone know who's pants these are?" I said, and suddenly everyone was there, Yuki and Kyo on the edges of the room.

"Are those mine?" Kyo asked.

"Aw, snap," Maiko said, and I knew what was coming next, since I'd cracked this joke before. "Ari got in Kyo's pants." I couldn't not laugh at Kyo's expression.

"Well, I'm going to go _get out_ of Kyo's pants, so I'll be right back, and then we can leave," I said as Maiko continued to laugh at her own joke. I changed, tossed the pants in Kyo's room, and we headed outside.

"We're driving?" Yuki asked, spotting Rin's blue 2009 Subaru Impreza.

"Yeah, but I swear, if anyone get's my car dirty, I will kill all of you slowly and painfully," Rin said, looking dead serious, and Yuki and Kyo both looked at me with equal looks of alarm.

"Rin's car is like her baby, so just be careful," I said, then I noticed something. "Uh, Rin? Aren't there only five seats?"

"Oh, yeah. Huh. I guess Kyo can sit in front since he's a little bigger than the rest of you and you can all just squish," she said with a shrug, climbing into the driver's seat. I sighed, and let Yuki in first and me second so no one would get close enough for him to transform, then the twins, and Maiko on the outside since she was smallest.

"Hey guys!" Hikaru began.

"Group bonding time!" Hikari added with a smile, though I could tell she was feeling squished.

"Ok guys, time to tell the most embarrassing things that have every happened to us. So, this one time, I was at the studio, right? And-" Hikari put her hand over Maiko's mouth. We'd all heard this one enough to know what happens, and didn't want to hear it again.

"I said, 'bonding;' not 'scaring,'" she said, and Maiko sat back, finally quiet. It only took a matter of minutes to reach the pool, and after paying, Hikari and I were running and taking our clothes off at the same time, quickly grabbed each other's hands, and dove in and popped up together.

"Come on guys! What's takin' so long?" we yelled at everyone as we climbed back out. I saw Kyo leaning against the wall.

"Um, excuse me. What are you doing?" I asked, raising an eye-brow at him.

"Standing. What does it look like I'm doing?" he said, not budging. _Of course…_

"Well I think there's something you'd actually like here." _Lie. Lie. Lie._ "You might want to take your shirt off. If you get splashed on the way it won't be my fault. Just a suggestion," I said, and he sighed, but obeyed. "Come on," I said and he followed me around the edge of the pool towards the deep end. I turned around to push him in, but he blocked my arms, but then I grabbed his and jumped.

"Hey!" he had time to yell before we were under. I could kind of see him underwater, even though I could feel the slight sting of chlorine. "What the hell!?" he yelled when I popped up.

"Fun, that's what. Hey, I kinda think I look like Ju-on right now," I said, since my hair had fallen in my face and was hanging down from the water weight. (**A.N. If you do not recall, Ju-on is the original Grudge, done in Japan**)

"You do," Kyo said bluntly, and I stuck my tongue out at him and dove under, sitting on the bottom for a few seconds before going back up and pushing my hair out of my face, only to get splashed by Hikaru shouting as he flew off the rope swing.

"Thanks. I totally needed that," I said sarcastically.

"You're welcome. I believe you need this too," he said, and dove underwater. I looked around for him, when I felt a hand on my legs, and when he popped up, my knees were hanging on his shoulders and I was clinging to his head to avoid hanging upside down.

"No! I suck at these!"

"Chick fight!" Hikaru yelled, and he turned slowly so I wouldn't fall off, and I could see Hikari had already hoisted Maiko onto her shoulders, who was grinning like a devil.

"I really don't want to do this," I pointed out, and Maiko shrugged at me.

"That sucks for you then!" She half lunged at me but I grabbed her hands mid-air, but half her weight was on them, so I tipped back and ended up pulling her forward, pushing Hikari's head underwater, and accidentally winning all at the same time.

"Whoo! We're winners!" Hikaru yelled as Maiko and Hikari popped up, Hikari spitting out water. He took his hands off my legs and let me fall back. When I got up, I saw Yuki grinning at me, and stuck my tongue out at him.

"That was a complete accident wasn't it?" I heard Kyo say.

"What? How do you know I'm not just a ninja like that?" I countered, even though he was totally right.

"Because I flipped you," he said with a small grin.

"Really? How much you wanna bet I can hit that?" I pointed up to a large AC pipe that was a few feet above the top of the rock wall. The rock wall was slightly angled towards you, so if you slipped, you went right into the water.

"You're on," he said and I swam towards the wall and started climbing. I heard a whistle from below me.

"_Damn_ girl! Don't you go be a ho on me!" I head Hikari yell from below me. I stopped and turned around (as much as I could, anyway).

"Oh be quiet! You bought this for me," I called down, and she had for my birthday a year back, which made me think about what day it was. "Shit…" I mumbled under my breath.

"Hey! You gonna give up?" Kyo called from below.

"No way in hell!" I shouted back, and started climbing again. When I was almost to the top, I quickly threw myself up the last few footholds and leaped, hearing the satisfying _bong!_ and some cheers on my way down.

I don't know how long we were there, but we hung out until the life guard kicked us out, and we went to the dressing rooms to change.

"Hey, Ari," I heard Rin say from the shower next to me.

"Yeah?"

"What's up with you guys?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You, Yuki, Kyo, and Hikaru. It's kinda crazy," she said, in that way-too-cunning way she has.

"Nothing," I said ingeniously.

"Ari, you're a bad liar. I know _the day_ is coming up, but still. They seem pretty eager to be involved with anything you are. Let them help," she said quietly so only her and I could hear, and I couldn't help the sigh that escaped. I hated thinking about it, but it was still coming, and I couldn't stop time, so I was totally screwed. December first. I had two days.

**Sorry for taking so long, I spent quite a while trying to get the beginning right. Ok guys, I'm going to ask you guys a favor, so please listen. I have a forum called That Awkward Child has Things to Say!, and I would love it if you went to check it out. I'm doing a contest for one of my other stories, you don't have to read it to participate, because none of those readers seem to have much interest in it XP I'm also doing a thing called Rachel's Challenge. Whether you've heard of it or not, you really just need to read and hear about it. I had a representative come to my school, and he literally had me, my friends, and lots of tough, football-playing, straight guys in tears. **

** myforums/xXStormy-chanXx/4131088/**

**Please come check it out! And on another topic, I'd still love for someone to draw Ari! If you are interested, look over my author's note again and Let me know! ~Stormy:3**


	12. Chapter 11

I woke up and slapped a hand over my mouth to stifle the scream. When my hand came off it was wet with salt water and I quickly wiped my face on my blanket, glad it had all been a dream. In my dream, I had been in my room, and I had headed down stairs. When I got there, no one seemed to be home. I'd heard knock on the door and answered it, and my mother was there. I couldn't recall all the details, but I remember her dragging me by my hair into what looked like a ruin of Shigure's study, and she had just raised an empty beer bottle over her head when I woke up.

I quickly and quietly slipped out of my room, leaving the door open. Ok, call me crazy, but I just had to check. I cracked open the door to Yuki's room just enough that I could see his foot hanging off his bed. I did the same with Kyo's, and I could hear the snoring coming from Shigure's when I went down stairs. I turned around and nearly screamed.

"What are you doing up?" I hear a sleepy Yuki's voice ask.

"Oh my gosh, you scared me so bad," I said, trying to catch my breath.

"My apologies, but why are you up so late?" he asked again.

"Oh, i-it's nothing. I just couldn't sleep." It wasn't a _complete_ lie; I couldn't sleep because I was freaking out. Yuki raised an eyebrow and gave me a small smile.

"I hope you realize that you aren't a very good liar, Ms. Takahashi," he said, and I could feel my face heat up.

"You'll think I'm being ridiculous."

"I highly doubt that," Yuki said sincerely, and I sighed and leaned back, with my back against the wall.

"I just had this stupid dream, and you guys were gone, and my m-mom was here, and, I don't know. Like I said, I was just being ridiculous." I looked at the floor and could feel my face heating up even more.

"I don't think it's ridiculous." I looked up to see Yuki leaning against the wall and looking down at me. Even though it was dark I could see his purple eyes. "Everyone gets scared sometimes, and sometimes, you just need to know everything's fine to feel better. Are you ok?" I fought the tears that threatened to spring into my eyes. _Why are you always ok until someone asks if you're ok?_

"Yeah, I'm fine. We should probably just head back to bed," I suggested, not really wanting to delve any deeper into my terrifying dreamland. I began to step around him when there was a tug on my arm, and suddenly he was hugging me.

"In case you don't recall, we already went over the fact that you're a terrible liar," he said, and I could hear the small smile in his voice. I relaxed against him and hugged him back, still trying to fight the tears.

"Thanks. I'm kinda glad it was you." Yuki looked down at me, seeming surprised. "Kyo would've agreed with me," I said, and we both smiled.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"Oh my god, are you serious?"

"Am I ever not?" Rin said from the other end of the phone. "Remember, 421 Willow Street in three hours."

"Oh my god! Tell your dad he's my favorite friend's dad ever! Thank you so freaking much! I love you!"

"Love you too babe," Rin said, hanging up, and I ran upstairs to shower. After, I ran into my room, still wearing my robe, to try and find some nice-ish clothes. I was stuck between two choices. I grabbed both and ran down stairs.

"Hey, which to you guys think looks better for a job interview?" I said, and Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure all looked up at me.

"Hey! Don't you have any shame!? Put some clothes on before you start running around!" Kyo shouted at me, and I looked down. My robe came to about mid-thigh.

"I _think_ this is close enough to clothes. It covers what it needs to cover. Now, this one," I held up a nice pair of blue jeans and a white tee with a plaid, blue, button up shirt. "Or this?" I held up a dress that was black above the hips, with floral print beneath it.

"The dress."

"The first one." Yuki and Kyo said both at the same time, so I was a little lost on who said what.

"She should choose something that looks nice on her," Yuki said in that seemingly-calm-but-I-could-hear-the-annoyance voice.

"It _would_ look nice on her. Why the hell would she wanna be all girly looking?" Kyo said, his anger more obvious.

"Because, like she said, it's a job interview. She'll want to look good."

"So? She'd want to be herself too!" I just stood there, waiting for them to realize they were talking like I wasn't here.

"It is 'herself.' She wouldn't have purchased it if it wasn't." I gave up on waiting and went upstairs and put something else on that would hopefully appease them; a floral skirt with a white tee and black vest.

"Is this good?" I asked when I came back down when they were_ still_ arguing. They both stopped mid-sentence to look, so they were gaping a little. I sighed and walked over and closed both of their mouths with one finger. "Keep your mouths closed; you'll catch flies," I said, and turned to leave, grabbing a coat since it was starting to rain.

"I think that means they like it!" I heard Shigure call right as I was about to step out the door.

"I believe so!" I called back, then closed the door behind me, but not soon enough as to not hear the sounds of him getting hit. The restaurant was a bit of a walk away, but it would only take about ten minutes. I would still be really early, but it was better than being late. While I was spacing out in my own personal world, I spotted something weird. It looked like Kyo in his cat form, but bigger and with some black. _There is _no_ way that is what I think it is…_

It was a tiger. A _legitimate_ tiger cub. I ran over to it, and it was shivering. I quickly took off my coat and wrapped it around it, picking it up; it struggled for a minute, but then subdued, it's head peeking out and looking at me.

"Ari?" I turned around to see Haru's grey eyes looking at mine. "You found her."

"Huh?" I replied ingeniously.

"Kisa," he gestured with a white glove to the little tiger in my arms.

"Wait, she's- oh!" _So she's a Sohma._ "Should we take her to Shigure's?"

"Yeah," he said, and I waited for him to turn around so I could follow behind him. "Where exactly is Shigure's house?" he said, looking around, and I giggled.

"This way, smart guy," I walked around him and he followed.

"Want me to hold Kisa? You'll get all wet."

"It's fine. A little water's never killed anyone." I'd have to wear a different outfit though.

"Well, people can drown in an inch of water, so a little water has probably killed someone," Haru said with a neutral face.

"Well, I don't think _rain_ has killed anyone."

"Flash floods," he offered.

"Well then. You just _gotta_ be a winner, don't you?" I said, and he smiled. "You know what? It probably doesn't matter much to you, but I decided that like you," I said and he looked down at me, eyes widened. "To be completely honest, when I first met you, I was a little creeped out. It felt like you were scrutinizing everything I did. But you seem fairly normal. So I decided I like you now."

"Thanks. You seem fairly normal too," he said with a grin as we arrived at the house.

"I returned! Well, _we_ returned!" I called in, not getting a response. "We have a guest!" Three heads popped out from various places. "_Now_ you're interested. I'm going to try to dry Kisa off and get her some clothes," I said, and Haru nodded, walking towards Yuki. I set Kisa on my bed, and heard Kyo come in behind me.

"So what's goin' on?" he said, sitting near Kisa.

"I found her outside like this, then Haru found me-" I quickly sucked in a breath. I had taken my coat off of her, and was about to dry her off a little with a small towel, when she bit me. I bit down on my lip, trying not to make weird squeaks of pain.

"Kisa!" Kyo shouted. She let go and curled into a tight a ball.

"Kisa, if you didn't want me to dry you off, you coulda said something. Violence is _never_ the answer; even when it really seems like it is," I said, trying to ignore my bleeding hand.

"Hey, how's it-oh," Haru said, walking in with a towel on his head. He noticed my hand, gave a quick disappointed look at Kisa, and walked out, coming back a moment later with a small, rolled up bandage. "Let me take care of that," he said, and I held out my hand as he knelt in front of me.

"This seems to keep happening to _this_ hand," I said, thinking out loud.

"Getting bit by tigers?" Haru said sarcastically.

"More like getting it hurt and needing minor medical attention."

"Oh yeah. I remember you had it wrapped last time and it was Kyo's fault, right?"

"It wasn't my fault!"

"So what exactly happened?" he asked, looking up from wrapping.

"Um, stray flying bottle?" I said right as he looked back down, and his eyes whipped back up, as wide as Yuki's had been when he found out. Hopefully, we wouldn't go down that exact trail again. I noticed Kisa was watching me as well, but looked away when she noticed my noticing.

"Stray flying bottle, huh?" Haru asked, cocking a brow. "Ok; I guess weirder things have happened." I gave him a small smile in appreciation for not asking, which he returned. I noticed the piercings in his ears while he was finishing.

"Hey, where'd you get your ears done?" I asked.

"Did it myself," he answered simply.

"Da-" I glanced at Kisa. "Dang. I wish I had the balls to do that. I always wanted to get mine done, but if my mom ever found out, crap would hit the fan," I said, and Haru chuckled.

"I could do it for you if you wanted. It's not that hard," he said, totally serious.

"Why the hell would you wanna do that?" Kyo said.

"I don't know. Why the heck _would you_ want to do that?" I said and he looked confused, and I turned back to Haru. "Really?"

"Yeah. I even have a few spare hoops on me."

"Hmm. We should probably do this later," I said, looking at Kisa. Haru followed my gaze and nodded. "I don't mean to talk like you're not here, but she isn't much of a talker, huh?"

"Not recently. She doesn't speak. She hasn't said a word since right after she started middle school. Not one; and from what Hatori says, the problem's all in her mind. He said, for some reason, she's locked away all of her words. And after she stopped talking, she stopped going to school, and then today, she ran away from home. That's why I went out looking for her when I found you." I didn't know what to say.

"But, I don't understand. Why would she act this way all of a sudden?" I hadn't even noticed Yuki walk in.

"She was picked on." Faster than I expected, Kisa jumped up and clamped down on Haru's arm. "That hurts. What is it? Are you angry now?" he said, watching Kisa. You think I should just mind my own business, is that it? You _made_ this my business. Do you have any idea how worried I was about you? Or your mother? You know, she's still out there looking for you right now."

"Kisa," I said, and she seemed to give a little, but didn't budge. "Remember what I said a minute ago? Violence is never the answer. I've had to deal with someone who thought that violence was the answer for a long time. I'm lucky I didn't turn out the same way. Because, really, when you honestly think violence is the answer, you're hurting others, _and_ yourself." She watched me with intense brown eyes for a moment, then quickly let go and ran off. I could see Haru's arm was bleeding where she had bit him. I grabbed the towel I was going to dry Kisa with and dabbed at it, then tied it around his arm. "This will have to do for the moment," I said, and he looked up at me with a question mark expression. "I'll be right back." I picked up my coat from next to him and ran in the direction Kisa had, but there was no sign of her. I ran around the house calling her name a few times before I saw the tell tale spot of orange. There was a woman I didn't recognize with her.

"Kisa, mother's here now. Shigure was good enough to call me, to tell me where I might find you. Tell me, Kisa, why are you doing this? Why do you want to cause nothing but trouble for those around you? What were you thinking? Do you enjoy hurting me like this?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Why? Why didn't you tell me the other kids were picking on you? Why did you run away from home? Why won't you say anything? I'm tired, Kisa. I-I've had it." It was all I could do not to tell her that _I'd_ already had it with her bull shit. I took a deep breath before saying anything.

"You know, it's not that simple. I know how she feels, you feel like if you tell anyone, they might feel the same way everyone else does. Or they'll be ashamed of you. You feel like, if you keep it so yourself, everything might just end up ok." I walked over and sat by them. "You try to be brave and deal with it, act like you don't care. But you do care, _a lot_. And it wears away at you, and all you end up doing is hurting yourself. You begin to believe them, and you don't want anyone else to believe them, so you make sure there's no one there to believe them. You push people away, even if you don't mean to. She didn't want to risk someone she loved hating her like that." There was a puff of smoke, and a lovely little girl, Kisa, was silently crying. I put my coat around her, and offered her a hand up, which she hesitantly took, and we hugged each other at the same time.

I took her inside and upstairs to find some clothes while her mom talked with Shigure. I found her a large tee shirt that fit her like a night gown. Shigure came up a while later to let us know that Kisa would be spending the night, and asked if she could stay with me.

"Of course! I don't mind at all. I always wanted a little sister." I got extra pillows so we could both sleep in my bed. "Are you tired?" I asked, and she nodded. "Ok, well let me brush out your hair first; you don't want it getting tangled." I grabbed my brush from the bathroom, and we say on the bed as I carefully brushed all the tangles out of her hair. "You're so lucky. Your hair is just naturally pretty, while I have to dye mine. I think only you could pull it off, though. It suits you. Do you want me to braid it too? It wouldn't take too long," I offered, and she didn't respond for a moment, then gave a tiny shrug. "Well we might as well. It will be even prettier than normal in the morning." After braiding her hair, we both climbed under the covers and passed out, completely exhausted after everything that happened.

**Hey guys! I wanted to fill you in on something: When I first started writing this, it was going to be a KyoXOC story, period, no questions asked, the end. Now, I am **_**actually**_** questioning myself. I am **_**seriously**_** hesitating in all this. I never question myself! Ever! You see, in the past month I read the magna (yes, all of it), and I have seriously found a **_**whole**_** new appreciation for Yuki. Now, I don't even know how I want this story to end anymore. In the words of Rin (in the last chapter), "It's kinda crazy." That's why this chapter started with a Yuki moment; it was going to be a Kyo moment, but I realized Kyo has quite a few moments already (at least I considered them moments), so I decided it was about time Yuki had another one. I'm also really excited because I think Hiro will finally make an appearance soon! Like, probably next chapter soon! I love Hiro! So, Kisa; I love her as well! She's adorable! And I was glad Haru got to make another appearance. I've wanted some more Haru in here, because it's been almost Haru-less so far. He's my third- wait, second… No, tied for second. Yeah, definitely tied for second favorite. It was really weird, right as I was writing Ari's "I like you," **_**If I Had You**_** by Adam Lambert came on, and I was like "I wish Ari could be with Haru, that'd be cute… It's a little late for that though… :(" So, yeah. Sad for us Haru fans out there. I don't know, maybe I can do a HaruXOC story later. It would probably be quite a bit later unless I had a pretty fricking astoundimagical idea, because I have so many stories in progress, and so many of them aren't on here either. I only want so many on here though, because otherwise, updating would take forever, so I neglect the stories that aren't up a little for your guys' sake. Ok, ya know what? Haru is my favorite. My very, absolute favorite. Yep. IT HAS BEEN DECIDED. Ok, of topic, anyhow, how did you like Ari's "Speech de Kisa" ? I couldn't make it **_**way**_** different from Tohru's, because I still wanted it to be saying how Kisa felt, but a la Ari (ha ha I'm using all my French II stuff :D). Well, I believe my extensive rambling is over. Ta ta for now! ~Stormy:3**


	13. Chapter 12

When I woke up in the morning, Kisa was still asleep. I smiled, she looked so at peace. I slowly slipped out of bed, not wanting to wake her, and headed down stairs to find something to eat. No one else seemed to be awake, so when I casually glanced at the calendar, there was no one to see me do a bit of a overdramatic double take. The days were crossed out all the way up until… December first. Today. _Fantastic… _

I heard the door slide open and Kyo walked in, looking sweaty and breathing a little hard. "What are you doing up?" he asked, looking a little surprised.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I had no clue what he was talking about.

"It's like, six-thirty. And a weekend," he said.

"Really?" I glanced at the clock. "Damn. Normally I'm almost as lazy as Yuki."

"Got that right. Kisa still sleeping?" he asked, and I nodded. He stood over me to see into the refrigerator, and I got a huge smell of sweaty guy.

"Oh dear god, you sir, need a bath because you smell really bad. And there's also the fact that you're covered in sweat and I don't want you dripping sweat everywhere, namely on me," I said, since he was standing over me, and there seemed to be a large possibility of that happening. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Don't worry, I'll be very careful," he said stepping closer as I cringed away. "Not to get any on you."

"No, no, no! Gross guy sweat! Back!" I said, unsuccessful in trying to find an un-sweaty part of him to push away.

"I'm getting back, I'm getting back," he said, only scooting closer. I tried to duck away but he oh so casually put his hand on the counter, trapping me.

"No! You're so gross!" I said pushing at his chest, and it wasn't hard to feel the muscles. "Nasty-ness! Go pick on someone your own size! And if you haven't noticed, I'm a about head shorter than you, so shoo!" Of course he didn't shoo. Instead he bent down and picked me up, so my head was even with his, and I was being touched by him and all his sweaty-ness, as I began frowning. I heard footsteps coming downstairs. "If whoever's coming downstairs would save me, that would be fantastic!" The footsteps came faster and I had a good idea of who it was. "_Ooh_, you're in _trouble_…" I said childishly, grinning at Kyo as Yuki appeared.

"What's. Going. On?" he said, sounding pretty pissed and really tired.

"Kyo is harassing me."

"What!?" Luckily for Kyo, there was a knocking at the door.

"I'll get it," Yuki said, aware that I was still a little indisposed at the moment. "Hi."

"Uh, is Arisu here?" I heard an awkward accent that I knew and loved.

"Lemme go!" I shouted at Kyo, squirming out of his arms. "Tessa!"

"Ari!" I saw Tessa run past Yuki and we both hugged each other.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, switching to English since my English was better than her Japanese.

"Seeing you for your birthday, silly! And may I ask, who is that _dashing_ young man at the door?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Don't bother. He's not you're type," I said, and she frowned. "That's Yuki Sohma, and this is his cousin Kyo Sohma."

"Uh, what's goin' on?" Kyo said, _attractively_ wandering in from the kitchen still all sweaty with toast hanging out of his mouth.

"And you told me to have some shame. Kyo and Yuki, this is my cousin, Tessa Maslin. She lives in the US, so feel free to say anything you like, because she'll understand very little of it," I said with a smile. Yuki held his hand out to her with a smile.

"Hello," he said simply, as she shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you," she said, and I could tell she'd been working on her Japanese. Kyo waved and headed back into the kitchen. "Are there any _other_ sexy men I should know about?"

"Um…"

"What is all the racket? Honestly, it isn't even- oh hello. Arisu, who's this?" _Speak of the devil…_

"Shigure, this is my cousin Tessa Maslin, and she came to visit. She's from the US, so her Japanese isn't too good. Tessa, this is Shigure Sohma, he's also Yuki's cousin."

"Nice to meet you," Tessa repeated, shaking his hand, and Shigure nodded.

"Well, if you don't mind, I believe I'll be headed back to bed," he said, disappearing.

"So now you live in a house full of sexy men? You lucky little bitch! I _hate_ you!" Tessa said continuing to look around.

"Don't touch anything. I'm going to get some breakfast."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

I found Kisa as I was heading towards the kitchen.

"Hey sweetie. Sorry if we woke you up. You hungry?" I asked, and she gave a small nod.

"Does cereal and some toast sound good? It seems like that's all we have at the moment." She gave another small nod. I got her out some food and set her a place at the table. "Here, let me take your braids out," I said, sitting behind her and taking out the little rubber bands and taking apart the strands.

"Well, who is this?" Tessa said, popping up behind me, and I saw her getting that look on her face when she really loved something; this something being Kisa.

"Calm yourself, this is Kisa Sohma. She's a little jumpy and doesn't really talk, so don't scare her," I warned her. "Kisa, this is my cousin Tessa Maslin. She's come to visit for my birthday," I said, figuring it wouldn't matter if Kisa knew it was my birthday since I didn't have to worry about her telling anyone.

"It's your birthday?" _Shit… Of _course_ someone hears me._

"Yeah," I said to Kyo, not really wanting to make anything of it.

"Well you shoulda told someone. We could've done something," he said, frowning at me.

"Well I didn't really want to. I never like to do anything for my birthday, why should now be any different?" I said as Tessa sat down and began undoing braids with me, seeing as she was lost on what we were saying.

"Why don't you like doing things for your birthday?" Kyo asked, coming to sit with us. Tessa and I finished taking out Kisa's braids and I ran my fingers through her hair. It looked really nice.

"Oh my goodness! Tell her that I say she's looks so super adorable!" Tessa said.

"Tessa says you look really pretty," I told Kisa, and she gave Tessa a small smile. We both hugged her at the same time.

"Oh my gosh you're adorable!" Tessa and I said.

"You're avoiding the question," Kyo pointed out.

"Avoiding what question?" Yuki said, wandering back in.

"Nothing!" I quipped. "I'm going to go shopping. Tessa do you want to come?"

"Sure."

"Kisa, I'll be right back sweetie. I'm going to do some shopping real quick. Love you! Bye guys!" I said, kissing the top of Kisa's head and grabbing Tessa as she was putting her shoes on and hurrying out before anyone could say anything.

"Well you're in a hurry," Tessa commented as we walked along.

"Well we have almost no food and its pretty cold outside, so yeah I'm in a hurry. Where's Uncle Zack and Aunt Emiko?"

"Doing a little sightseeing."

"How'd you even find me here?" I asked. I doubted Mom would know, much less tell; she didn't care enough to bother finding out, as long as I'm out of her hair than hallelujah.

"Well, I went to Aunt Ankoku's house, and no one was there, so I called Maiko, and I managed to get the point across that I was looking for you, and she told me where to find you," she said. She looked on edge for a moment, but the expression quickly vanished. _Of course it was Maiko._ "Where are we going, anyway?"

"There's a little market just down the street from here," I answered. "How long are you staying here?"

"Two weeks," Tessa answered, looking happy. "Oh, is that it?" she said, pointing to the little store that was nestled on a curb next to an antique shop.

"Yeah, let's go," I said, and we crossed the street and entered, escaping the cold breeze. We got inside, and I instantly tensed. "Hey Tessa, could you, uh, go over there and grab some milk? I think we used it all up this morning. I'll go over here and get the rest. Wait for me over there," I said, making sure to send her as far away as I could from that vile woman. I watched as Tessa nodded, not questioning me and walked away. I kept an eye on the both of them; carefully slipping between aisles, occasionally grabbing something and tossing it in the basket I'd grabbed. I'd only looked away for just a moment.

"Hi honey," she said in her nauseatingly sweet voice. "What are you doing here?"

"Sh-shopping," I stuttered, not turning to face her.

"Look at your mother when she's talking to you," she commanded, grabbing my jaw, but it was closer to grabbing my throat, and turning me to look into her soulless eyes. "Isn't that better?"

"Yes," I automatically squeaked, knowing you _never_ told her 'no.'

"Where on Earth have you been sweetie? I've been worried about you," she said, taunting me.

"W-with my f-friends," I answered weakly.

"You couldn't mean that terrible boy who took you away, could you?" she said, sounding concerned but her face was devoid of any emotion, except for maybe boredom.

"Yes, mother," I answered, using every bit of courage in myself to say it. Even so, I felt like a small, insignificant fly trapped in a spider's web. I felt like curling into a ball right there on the floor and just sitting there, trying to calm my heart and my breath.

"Well don't you worry a fake hair on your little head; mother is here to take you home now. Come along," she ordered, taking the basket filled with random stuff and setting it down, grabbing my hand and dragging me with her like a toddler being led across the street.

"W-wait. Mother, I-I don't-"

"Don't worry dear, you'll be safe now," she said, and I could hear the malice in her voice. I looked around for Tessa but couldn't find her.

"M-mother, no, I can't-"

"What was that?" By this time we were outside of the store, and a few feet down the sidewalk toward home. "No, you say? _No?_ Well, we'll just have to fix that, won't we?"

I almost began hyperventilating. She had a vice-like grip on my wrist, making me glad the wounds had healed. I walked along, not sure what to do. It's not like I could attack her; she's my mother. If I called for help, she'd just brush off the people, saying I'm just a teenager being a teenager. I didn't have my cell phone. Tessa would be worrying right about now, and her Japanese isn't very good. _I am completely screwed, but better me than Tessa and me both._ Tessa didn't know about the beatings; neither did her parents even though her mom is my mother's sister. If Tessa got hurt, it would be all my fault.

We were almost to the house, I could see it down the street; it's spotty brown sides with off-white trimming. I could feel my eye brimming with tears at the site of it, but I wouldn't cry; I wouldn't show weakness in front of her. Not this time. She dragged me inside then threw me down, and I barely caught myself, somehow not cutting myself on the scattered glass.

"Now start cleaning," she ordered, going and grabbing a large bottle of whiskey. I grabbed the broken broom and started sweeping, trying to appease her for the time to figure out how to get out of here. I'd swept the hallway and was starting on the living room, moving a couch to get under, when I found something that wasn't glass. It was a picture.

It was one of the one's I'd told Yuki and Kyo about; the ones that I'd hidden all over the house where only I would know where they were. It was a pencil drawing of a black rose, but blue petals were falling off, and as they were falling, there were small tears falling off of them. I quickly and carefully folded the drawing in half and put it in my pocket before mother noticed me slacking. I finished sweeping and put the broom away, and headed to the kitchen where my mother was sitting with the whiskey bottle which was already mostly empty.

"Well, what are you waitin' for? Make dinner!" she shouted, not quite drunk yet. She'd been drinking too long to let one, measly bottle of whiskey inebriate her. I went and hurried to make something she'd like, all the while looking out the windows, looking for anything to give me an idea. I doubted I could just sneak out; she'd be up most of the night drinking. I could try to sneak a phone call in. It would have to be really quiet, and she'd have to be really drunk; but it might just work.

I waited until night; it was almost eleven. Mother was shouting at the television, something about moving over so she could see. I ran into the kitchen and grabbed the phone, pressing my hand over the speaker to muffle the beeps ad I punched in numbers. It rang twice.

"Hello?" Shigure's voice answered. I heard my mother's footsteps coming this way.

"Tell Kyo he needs to be a hero again!" I said, quickly setting the phone down.

I hoped it was enough.

_Kyo…_

"Hello? Hello? Ari? Huh, lost connection."

"Ms. Takahashi called? Is she okay?" Yuki asked, concern on his face.

"Did she say where she was?" Kyo asked, abruptly standing up.

"Well, not exactly-"

"Well what the hell did she say then!?" Kyo shouted, getting more pissed by the second.

"She said that you need to be a hero again."

He didn't know what that meant. _Be a hero again? How the hell am _I_ a hero?_ He wasn't exactly the hero type. Then he realized what she meant.

"Fuck!" he sprinted outside, running as fast as he could, and heard the damn rat running behind him; even though he didn't know where he was headed, he just kept right behind him.

They reached her mom's house in a matter of minutes, and Kyo kicked the door down, not caring if it was unlocked. He heard a small yelp.

"Ari!" He ran towards the sound. Ari was on the ground holding her cheek while her mother stood above her, hand still extended from hitting her. Yuki and him ran to her. "Shit! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, but he could hear her voice trembling.

_Ari…_

"How dare you," I heard Yuki say, and it honestly scared me. Every one of his muscles were flexed, looking like he was doing his best not to murder my mother. It was a nice gesture. "How dare you lay a _hand _on her. Just because you are wallowing in your own self-pity doesn't mean you have _any right_ to touch her. And I swear, if you ever touch her, or give me any reason to think you'll hurt her, again, I will come here and I will personally kill you," he said, totally serious.

"Come on. Can you walk okay?" Kyo asked, grabbing my hand and helping me up. I nodded and wiped tears off my face, wincing when I brush my cheek, and I could tell I'd have a bruise by tomorrow morning.

"I wonder what Tessa will think," I mused out loud.

"What?" Kyo looked at me with total disbelief, then he gave a short laugh. "Of course you'd be thinking about that right now," he said with a small smile.

"Are you okay Ms. Takahashi? Are you hurt?" Yuki asked, coming out behind us, frowning and looking pissed and on edge at the same time.

"I'll be fine," I reassured him, and he sighed.

"What are you doin' here anyway?" Kyo asked.

"I guess I was kind of voluntarily kidnapped," I said, not sure how to put it.

"You _wanted _to go with her?" Kyo said, sounding like he was about to get mad.

"No! No, but, it was like I was a lunatic in a straightjacket. I couldn't think, and, and I-I was scared and-"

"You don't have to talk about it. All that matters is that you're okay now, and we won't let her hurt you," Yuki said, reassuring me this time. I pulled them both in for a hug at the same time; partly just to calm my nerves.

"Thanks you guys. For being my superheroes." I could see them both blushing a little when I let them go, and I smiled. We all walked back home, trying to calm our nerves. I saw a familiar black and white head when I walked in.

"Haru? What are you doing here?"

"Nothing. How'd you get that nasty bruise?"

"Punched in the face," I answered simply, and his eyes widened a little.

"Damn. That looks like it really hurt."

"Tell me about it," I said, kind of glad he was being so casual about it.

"Sissy!" Kisa practically threw herself into my arms.

"Kisa! Oh my god! Kisa!" I said, not sure what to say, as I held her, stroking her hair.

"Are you ok?" she asked, sounding like she was about to cry.

"Oh, don't worry sweetie! I'm fine. I just had a little accident," I said, and noticed Haru smiling. "Excuse me, sir; did you plan on mentioning this?"

"Possibly."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Where's Tessa?"

"You mean the girl who was panicking and could barely manage so say anything I could understand? She headed home a while ago. At least I'm pretty sure she said home," Haru said, relaxed as always. I felt a peck on the back of my head and turned around to see Shigure.

"Happy birthday kiss!" He was promptly slapped. Haru got up, heading somewhere while I sat down with Kisa.

"We gotcha something," Haru said, returning.

"Huh?"

"Ta da," he said opening a box with a cake inside.

"We would have made you one, but we didn't really know how," Yuki said with a small smile.

"Yeah, and we didn't want to mess it up, and your cousin said this was your favorite, so..." Kyo said with a shrug.

"Do you like it, Sissy?" Kisa asked, looking at me with wide eyes.

"I more than like it, I _love_ it!" I said, giving her a hug.

"So she gets a hug when we bought the cake?" Haru asked, raising an eyebrow at me, which I returned.

"Jealous, much?" He shrugged. "Okay guys, group hug again! _Everybody_ this time," I said pulling everyone in; even Shigure joined us. "You know what guys? I noticed we've done a _lot_ of hugging lately."

"Hugs can heal the soul," Shigure commented.

"Yes, I believe they can."

"Birthday kiss," Haru said, quickly kissing me on the forehead, and hurrying to leave before he could get punched. Kyo and Yuki both sighed.

"Happy birthday," they said, simultaneously kissing my on the cheeks, and I could feel a bright red blush creeping onto my face.

I've began to realize one thing: yes, our little group is very dysfunctional; yes, we don't always play nice with each other; and yes, we make mistakes, quite a lot of them. But we're family, and we have each other. And that's all that matters.

**Oh my Satan, sorry for taking so long guys! Was it a long time? It felt like a long time to me. I don't even know when exactly I updated this story last. Too many stories and too many updates to keep track of. So, something pretty awesome happened! SOMEONE DREW ARI FOR ME! AAHHH! It's so good! It was done by LoverXxofxXReading! She's the best! Here is the link:**

** art/Arisu-and-Hikaru-334325866**

**I think you guys will love it! I know I did! Serious props and thanks for LoverXxofxXReading! I'm still willing to have other people draw her; I'd love to see all your interpretations! And by the way, I've always had link-issues, so if you can't get to it, just go to my profile page and I have a link there as well!**

**Oh, and to respond to some of your reviews, I'm doing this mostly from the anime but one part later will be from the manga but you don't need to worry about it if you haven't read it; the scene is very self-explanatory. And could you guys go check out the poll on my page? It's for this story, so VOTE! And there's one more thing I need to discuss: If you are going to write 'more' in a review, please don't spell it M-O-A-R. Seriously? It's the same amount of letters; it's not that hard people! Sorry, it's just a serious pet peeve of mine. So please read, review, and spell 'more' correctly! ;) ~Stormy:3**


	14. Chapter 13

Class. Is. Boring. I was glad when the bell finally rang for lunch.

"Hey, I'm going to walk down to Watabe Noodle House with Maiko to grab lunch. Want me to bring you back something?" Rin offered.

"Definitely. Surprise me. You're the best, you know that right?"

"Of course," she said with a smile, and headed for the parking lot. I Hikaru and Hikari were both sick today, so I found Yuki and Kyo and Momiji and Haru joined us.

"So how is everyone's day going?" I asked.

"Great!" Momiji exclaimed, looking adorable as usual, even though he was wearing the girl's uniform. "What about yours, Ari?"

"Pretty normal," I said. "You know, you've never explained to me why you wear the girl uniform."

"It suits him, doesn't it?" Haru said with a shrug.

"It does. Touché."

"Well why the hell does that matter? He's still dressed as a girl!" Kyo shouted.

"A valid point, Kyonkichi Sohma, class 2D. And while I find that orange head of yours disagreeable, I will ignore it for the moment. But what I cannot ignore is a boy who would wear a girl's uniform to school! This goes beyond outrageous! And even if your teachers allow it, I will not! For I am the school student council president Makoto Takei! Also known as, Captain of the Campus Defense Force!" he guy exclaimed, two girls behind him unenthusiastically clapping.

"What a complete idiot…" Kyo, Haru, and Yuki mumbled together.

"I can see already that you're going to be a problem student. And the same goes for you, Hatsuharu Sohma. I will not tolerate that white hair, or those gaudy necklaces."

"President Takei, it's his natural color," Yuki said.

"Oh, Yuki, so nice to see you, but _natural color!_ I can see that his hairline is black!"

"Yes, that's natural too."

"That's ridiculous! I don't believe it! And I suppose wearing this dress is natural for you, Momiji Sohma? Have you no pride as a man? You had best change your ways, and your clothes! Before this incident becomes the ruin of your life!" I could see Momiji's eyes brimming with tears. Now I was pissed.

"Here, I know something we could change," I said calmly, and everyone turned their attention to me. "How about we change your pain in the ass attitude, your pain in the ass voice, and you get your ass _out of here_."

"Ah, Arisu Takahashi. I see you still haven't changed your hair, even though I believe we have talked about this before."

"My hair? Or you being about to get your ass kicked? _Again_."

"Such a terrible attitude. It's even worse than when we were younger. I remember you used to have cuts and bruises all the time because you used to pick fights so often. No common sense whatsoever." _That's not why._

"Shut up. Quit shoutin' like you're king of the friggin' world. You're making my ears bleed, you bastard." Now, I was excited. "Now I've got some common sense for you: if I wore a tie, it wouldn't change who I am. If I had no piercings, it wouldn't mean I'm nice. And if my hair was black, it wouldn't stop me from kicking your ass! Who do you think you are anyway? Do you think you're god, huh? What's the matter huh!? You think everyone's the same!?"

"Hey! Cut it out! He's just an idiot!" Kyo shouted, and I agreed that this was enough.

"Shut up! No one asked you, you stupid cat!"

"Don't call me stupid you little brat!"

They continued shouting at each other as Haru dropped Makoto. I sighed at how childish they were acting. I hated Makoto as much as the next guy, but now this was just pointless.

"I'll be right back," I told Momiji, and he smiled and nodded.

"Hey guys," I said, stepping between them.

"What!?" they both shouted. I took a calming breath before speaking.

"What the hell is wrong with you two!? You're bickering like little children! Now I love you guys, and I mean it, but I'm not gonna hang around if you keep acting like this!" I finished, shoving them both in the chest in opposite directions.

"You love me, now do you?" Haru said suggestively, pulling me toward him. I smiled for a moment. Then I punched him in the jaw.

"Well I believe that takes care of that," I said, content with my work. "I'm going to go see if Rin is back. Bye guys!"

"See you later!" Momiji called, and I waved. I headed out towards the parking lot, taking the long way. It was kind of chilly outside, but I felt nice.

"You seem to be in a good mood." I turned at the voice. It was a tall, intimidating, man with ebony hair and grey eyes.

"Uh, hi. I'm Arisu Takashi. Do I know you?"

"No, I don't believe you do. I'm Akito Sohma," he said in a quiet voice. Kyo had only mentioned him briefly when he told me about his family; he said he was the head of the family wasn't someone to be messed with.

"Well, it's lovely to meet you Akito." He chuckled a little.

"You're very polite, I'm glad. And you _seem_ to be a good person." _I… what?_ "And not only that, you're extremely cute."

"Huh? Oh, please, I'm really not. But thank you," I said, and I don't know what was funny, but her chuckled more.

"So, you're modest, too. I really mean it, you are cute. I'm sorry I didn't say hello sooner, I tend to be rather shy around strangers."

"Oh, don't trouble yourself over it. It's fine. I understand what you mean."

"Well that's good. I should introduce myself properly. I am Akito, head of the Sohma family. I am pleased to meet you." This guy was really creeping me out. I didn't know what it was about him, but I felt extremely uncomfortable.

"The pleasure is all mine. Kyo told me about you, and I wondered if I'd ever get a chance to meet you in person."

"Well I do hope we can be friends from now on. Just as you are with Yuki and Kyo."

"Akito!" I turned and saw Yuki standing in the doorway. He looked pale, like he'd just seen a ghost.

"There you are. I've missed you, Yuki. It feels like such a long time since we last saw each other, doesn't it?" Akito said, slowly approaching Yuki. It made my skin crawl.

"What did you do?"

"You look so grown up now. I think you've even gotten taller."

"_What_ did you do? Tell me. What did you do to Ms. Takahashi?" he said, eyes wide, looking half angry, half terrified.

"Nothing at all. We were simply introducing ourselves, right, Ms. Takahashi? We were just saying hello, weren't we?"

"Uh, yeah," I said, feeling more unsettled by the minute, and inched closer to Yuki.

"But now that I have you here, Yuki, there's been something I was dying to ask you," Akito said, placing a hand on Yuki's cheek. "Why haven't you been coming to see me? You know we're such great friends. I've been very forgiving lately, even when you've hurt me. Perhaps, I need to take some time to reeducate you, in that little room. The one I keep especially for you." Now I knew why I didn't like him. He was like my mom. He enjoyed hurting and scaring other people. I _hated_ those people.

I shoved him, _hard_, and he stumbled back. I didn't regret it.

"Sorry, turrets. I have them sometimes. It's pretty random. Well, I believe we need to get to class. It was simply _delightful_ meeting you, Akito. Bye!" I quickly looped my arm through Yuki's and half jogged back inside. I stopped once we were concealed behind a wall.

"Are you okay?" we both asked at the same time, and we smiled at each other.

"What's up with that guy? He scared the crap out of me," I said, and Yuki frowned.

"He didn't do, or say anything strange to you? Are you okay?"

"No. All he did was introduce himself. And I'm fine, really," I said. "But what about you?"

"What?"

"You seemed pretty shaken up," I said, which the understatement of the century.

"I'm fine," he said with a smile.

"You aren't a very good liar, Mr. Sohma," I said, doing my best imitation of him, which he laughed at.

"Let's just say there's some bad blood between Akito and I, and leave it at that," he said and I nodded.

"Well Mr. Sohma, we've managed to miss most of class. What would you like to do now?" I asked.

"Whatever you like. I doubt there's much point in going back to class now," he said with a shrug.

"Hmm. Well, I guess it's your turn to go on an Ari Adventure then!"

"A what?"

"Kyo and I have already gone on an Ari Adventure, so now it's your turn," I told him resolutely, leading him out of the building, but through a different exit so we wouldn't run into Akito again.

"So you mean ditching…" he sighed.

"Pretty much. Don't worry, I normally almost never ditch. You guys must be a bad influence on me," I said with a wink. We were about to cross the street in the direction of downtown, when a familiar car pulled to a stop in front of us.

"Hey babe. Where do you guys think you're going? You're going to be a bad influence on Mr. Good Boy here," Rin said, rolling down the window.

"We're going on an Ari Adventure."

"Makes sense. Do you want your food? I got you udon with sesame chicken," she tempted.

"Yes please! Thanks!" I said and Maiko handed over a take-out box and chopsticks from shotgun.

"Don't do anything you wouldn't do if I was there," she warned, then eyed Yuki. "Ari is my best friend, mister, if you ever hurt her, I will _break your face_," she said with a glare, and I felt my cheeks turn pink. "Okay, have fun!" she said in a sweet voice as Rin drove into the parking lot._ I swear, sometimes I think she's bipolar._

"Sorry about Maiko. She's very… _overprotective_."

"It's fine. I don't think caring about someone could be a bad thing," he said with a smile, and I nodded. I heard my IPod chime in my pocket, and I pulled in out to see I'd gotten a text from Tessa.

_Where r u?_

_ Adventuring. Why?_ I sent back.

_With 1 of the SEXY men?!_

_ *sigh* Yes, if you must know._

_KK. Call me when ur done so we can hang out! Which 1?_

_ The calm one._

_ Ooohhh girl, you scored big time! Haha have fun ;)_

_ Whatever._ I put my IPod back in my pocket, not wanting to be rude.

"Is there anywhere you'd like to go in specific?" I asked.

"I don't really care. It's an Ari Adventure, after all; you pick," Yuki said, and I knew the perfect place. I knew he wouldn't really be into legally harassing people, but I knew something we'd both like.

"Okay, come on," I grabbed his hand and led him in the direction of home. We turned off a little before we reached it though, and we were at the park we'd been when I'd first moved in. I headed over to the playground with him on my heels, and over to the swing set. I sat down and he sat on the one next to me. "I don't know what it is about this place, but I really like it here."

"Yeah, it's nice how quiet it is here," Yuki said, just sitting on his swing. I sighed a little and went over and pushed him.

"You're supposed to swing on swings," I teased, and he turned and smiled at me.

"I think this is a little backwards," he commented.

"Well I guess we're a backwards kind of people," I said, and he just raised an eyebrow at me as I went back to my swing. I opened my box of take out and had a few bites. "Want some?" I said, holding it out towards Yuki as we were swinging, and he shook his head. "Come on, you won't get _cooties_. Besides, I didn't see you eat at lunch, and you have to eat," I said, and he sighed, managing to grab the box and chopsticks when we both swung down, and took a bite and passed it back.

"Ms. Takahashi, may I ask you something?" Yuki said, sounding a little hesitant.

"You just did, but you may do it again," I said, and he smiled at me.

"Did you really used to get into fights when you were younger?"

"Yeah, Makoto exaggerated though, it wasn't very often that I did. He's just bitter that I beat him up one time and I've never failed to remind him any chance I get," I explained, smiling a little at the memory. It was a nice thought. "I don't even remember why I did it, but I remember him starting it."

"Why can I picture that so well?" Yuki said with a small laughed.


	15. Chapter 14

Yuki and I had almost finished weeding the garden, and he said he'd finish the rest himself. I headed back towards the house, taking my gloves off and sticking them in a pocket. Then, I saw something ahead of me on the trail. I jogged up to find a pile of closed with a small, sleeping snake inside.

"Okay, you've seen professionals do this before. You've got this," I quietly whispered to myself. I quickly and carefully grabbed it right behind the jaw, holding its mouth away from me, and it gently wrapped itself around my wrist. Then, I realized two more somethings.

One, who did these clothes belong to? Two, I had no idea what to do with a snake.

"Uh, hey Yuki?" I called.

"Yes?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a snake in the Zodiac, right?"

"Yes, why?" he said, his voice closer.

"Because I think I just found it," I said, turning around to find him standing right behind me, not looking very elated. He gathered up the clothes and we began walking toward the house. To be honest, I'd always liked snakes; I thought they were really cute. Yes, I am aware that it's weird to think snakes are cute, but I do. "So does he or she have a name?"

"Oh, my apologies. This is Ayame Sohma," Yuki said, still not smiling, and I just nodded. He obviously wasn't very happy about the unexpected arrival, so I wouldn't push it.

We arrived to flying food, as a bowl with miso and leeks flew by as we walked in, and I jumped with a yelp. Yuki set the clothes down and took the snake and practically threw him at Shigure. "Take him."

"Hey, be nice," I said with slightly stern look, and he just gave me a small smile. "I swear, you all have half-manners."

"Half-manners?" Yuki said, looking confused.

"At times, you guys can be super nice, but others times, it's like you don't have any manners. So, half-manners," I explained. "Hikaru has them too, and that's where I came up with it." I hadn't thought about Hikaru in a while. I guess I'd just tried to avoid thinking about him kissing me, so I had stopped thinking about him. All it did was make things complicated, and I really didn't need any more complicated in my life.

"Came up with what?" Kyo asked, obviously not having been paying attention.

"Nothing important. We have a guest."

"Hmm? Oh, _him,_" Kyo said with obvious dislike when he saw Shigure smiling as he held Ayame.

"Hey, I just went over this with Yuki. _Be nice."_

"Yeah, whatever," he sighed.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing."

"That's what I _thought_ you said." I realized I was sounding like a mom, but I'd warned them that if they acted like kids, I would treat them as such. "Now be good boy and play nice with the other children."

"Well I wouldn't call myself a _child_, per say." I squeezed my eyes shut when I heard the poof, but Kyo had been close enough that he'd put his hand over my eyes. "But I do love other people! Sorry, for the surprise visit, but I felt like it would be rude if I didn't visit the renowned Arisu!"

"It's still rude…" Yuki mumbled.

"_Mannerisms_," I said, accentuating each syllable.

"Sorry," he said, like child who'd been reprimanded for not listening. I heard Kyo snickering from where he was standing.

"Hey, you too," I said poking his side, and I felt him jerk a little. This was interesting…

"Sorry," he sighed.

"Yes you are."

"So you have as much of a way with them as I've heard! I'm delighted to hear that someone has been such a positive influence on my younger brother! So you really do exist; the princess I've heard so much about. A single blooming flower trapped in a house of stinking men! Are they treating you well, princess?"

"Uh, yes. Younger brother?" I raised a brow in Yuki's general direction even though Kyo still hadn't moved his hand. He removed it a moment later and I saw a tall man with long silver hair pulling on a red coat. He looked _just_ like Yuki; you know, except for the hair and eye color and clothes.

"Oh, Lucky Kyo, I heard you were staying here."

"I told you before! Stop calling me that!"

"Lucky Kyo, you haven't changed."

"I said stop!" he shouted, but I was still lost on the, 'younger brother,' thing.

"It's been too long, _Shigure,"_ he said in a tone that piqued my interest. I had no clue what was happening, so I decided to just stay quiet.

"Yes, it's been quite some time, hasn't it?"

"What a shame, you haven't forgotten about me while we were apart, have you?"

"Not a day has gone by that you haven't been on my mind, Ayaa." I was _so_ entertained.

"Yeah!" they said together with thumbs up, and I was sad because my entertainment had ended.

"Hello, Princess." I saw that the attention had been turned to me. "I'm sorry about earlier, I am Yuki's older brother, Ayame."

"I'm Arisu, but you can call me Ari. It's lovely to meet you," I said with a smile.

"So, Princess, how about you bring us some tea? And lunch would be nice," he said tapping the table.

"Okay," I said with a shrug. I was going to make lunch anyway.

"Don't let him treat you like that!" Kyo shouted at me, but I waved him off.

"Do you prefer any kind of tea?" I asked from the kitchen.

"Green, if you have it," he said, and I smiled.

"Yep, coming right up." Green tea is my favorite. I looked around for something to make. I wanted to make something nice since we had a guest and all, and I managed to whip together a few things. I took the tea out and set it at the table where Shigure and Ayame were talking while Yuki and Kyo sat, occasionally glaring at Ayame.

I was able to make a decent chicken katsu with tonkatsu sauce with some rice. I think it turned out pretty well.

"Okay guys, dinner's done." I brought it to the table with a few plates and silverware in one hand. I realized I probably looked just like a waitress. They all gazed for a moment. "Well come on, I didn't make it to look nice. Are we eating or not?"

"Seems kinda fancy for just an ordinary dinner," Kyo said, but used a fork to put some on his plate anyway.

"Well sorry for trying to be a good hostess," I said in a joking tone.

"Well I think it's delightful, dear Princess. Thank you ever so much for making this for me," Ayame said with a smile. I swear he looked _exactly _like Yuki when he did that.

"It was my pleasure," I said with a smile. I meant it; it was nice to meet him, even if him and Yuki didn't seem to have the best vibes going on, if that made any sense. They were totally different people, but I think they could get past that if they tried.

I peeked at my IPod in my pocket to check the time; it was about four, so Tessa would be over in an hour. I'd already asked Shigure this morning, and he said it was fine that she spent the night, as long as I was careful to keep an eye on her. I hadn't expected Ayame to be here, but I doubted that would change anything.

We finished eating for a while and Ayame announced that he would be spending the night, and they decided he'd sleep with Shigure. Yuki and Kyo looked kind of creeped out at first, but I gave them a look and they stopped. I heard the doorbell ring a moment later, and Tessa had arrived early.

I almost died when I opened the door. Aunt Emiko and Uncle Zack were standing with her. Shit.

"Um, one moment guys," I said in English, and closed the door and hurried back into the kitchen. "Okay people, minor emergency: my aunt and uncle are here, so you need to be pleasant gentlemen and be nice." Yuki looked like he was about to make a comment, but he held it in. "My aunt speaks Japanese, so she'll understand everything; my uncle will understand a majority. Okay." I ran back over before they could say anything and opened the door and smiled. "Hey guys, sorry about that. Come on in. They all came in and took their shoes off, and glanced around, my aunt and uncle looking slightly confused. "Did you guys already eat?"

"Yes, we're fine," Uncle Zack said. "Nice place." Uncle Zack built houses and then Aunt Emiko would do interior design, and then they sold them. I knew Aunt Emiko would immediately begin tweaking things once she got to look around the place. I led them into the kitchen. "Guys, this is Yuki, Kyo, Shigure, and Ayame Sohma."

"It's great to meet you all," Uncle Zack said, looking a little lost.

"It's a pleasure to meet the family of our little Arisu," Shigure said, standing up to shake his hand. This probably wasn't going to end well.

"Arisu, darling, may I talk to you for a minute?" Aunt Emiko asked, and I nodded, trying not to cringe. I lead her to my room upstairs so this would be private. I was also worried what would be going on downstairs. "Now, what's going on?"

"I'm staying here now. Not with mom anymore."

"I can see that, dear, but why?" My mom and aunt spoke in similar ways, both of them used endearments like darling or sweetie, but my aunt meant it genuinely. For my mom, it was all an act.

"Because I'm tired of dealing with her!" I said a little louder than necessary, hopping off the bed- knocking a book off my nightstand in the process- to pace back and forth. "I'm sick of pretending like everything's alright, because it wasn't! I like it here, and everyone's really nice, and… and I don't think I could leave if I wanted to. I love it here." I heard knocking on the door behind me. "Yeah?"

"Can we come in? You okay?" I heard Kyo say.

"Yeah." He and Yuki walked in, looking a little concerned.

"We heard a thud. Are you okay Ms. Takahashi?"

"I'm fine, I was just being clumsy," I said, reaching over to pick the book up, but Kyo did the same thing and we bonked heads. "Ow, haven't we done this before?"

"Crap, yeah." He grabbed the book and handed it to me.

"Sorry, like I said: clumsy." I set the book back on the nightstand and saw Aunt Emiko smiling.

"This is a good place for you to be," she said, switching to English to keep our conversation private. "These boys care for you very much, and they aren't too bad looking either," she said with a wink, and I felt my cheeks heat up, and the guys both raised an eyebrow at me. "Don't do anything you wouldn't do if I was here."

"Auntie!"

"Just saying," she said with a laugh. I had no clue how her and my mom were related. She gave me a quick hug and headed back downstairs.

"What'd she say?" Kyo asked.

"Nothing," I said a little quickly, and he gave me a look.

"Wait, what did she say?"

"_Nothing_. Nothing at all," I said, quickly retracing my aunt's steps.

"Hey! You tell me what she said!" I heard Kyo coming out behind me, and I jumped down the last of the stairs, and hurried into the kitchen, standing next to Tessa

"Hello," I said with a smiled as Kyo appeared behind me. He stayed a little farther away since Tessa was closer to him. "Tiss, let's bring your bag up to my room."

"'Kay," she said, following me up the stairs past Yuki, and I noticed she slowed and turned so she could view from all angles.

"Tiss!"

"Hmm?" she said, not taking her eyes away.

"Not. Your. Type," I said, grabbing her arm and pulling her along behind me until we reached my room. "Ta da."

"I like it. It's simple," she said, sitting on my bed.

"Yeah, but it's better than what I used to have," I said with a shrug as she changed into booty shorts and a tank top to sleep in. "You are such a whore."

"I am aware of this," she said with a smile. You might think I'm being mean to her, but that's just how Tessa and I work. "Oh, and by the way, Maiko told me to tell you she and everybody are coming over tomorrow."

"What?"

"Yeah, they came over on your b-day, but you pretty much _disappeared_ so they couldn't hang out with you," she said with a pointed look.

"Hey, I texted you and said I was sorry, didn't I? It was a bit of an emergency," I said, and was glad she just nodded and didn't question it, because I had no clue what I would have said. "Well at least I won't be surprised tomorrow."

"Yeah, that would be hectic. Who was that guy downstairs who looked like Yuki? I was trying to follow the conversation, but they were speaking too fast."

"That's Ayame. He's Yuki's older brother."

"That would explain why they look so similar. Do you guys have ice cream?" she said, easily changing subjects, and I smiled.

"Yeah, come on," I said, and she bounded after me down the stairs. Shigure and Ayame had disappeared and Kyo and Yuki were just lounging around. I was surprised they weren't arguing yet. I dug around in the freezer before pulling out a carton while Tessa found two bowls and spoons. After we dished it out, we headed back threw the dining room to head to the stairs, but we paused. Yuki and Kyo had both fallen asleep under the kotatsu.

"Watch out, watch out when there are markers about," Tessa said quietly, and I grinned. We were so doing this. We ran back into the kitchen and set our bowls in the freezer so they wouldn't melt while we were busy. We grabbed markers of multiple colors from a drawer filled with odds and ends and went about our careful work.

Tessa had to lay on the table to get a good angle on Yuki as she drew a monocle. I was on the ground as Kyo received a very curly mustache. When we finished our dirty work, Kyo had his classy mustache, a triangle beard and glasses while Yuki had his monocle, a goatee, and freckles. We quickly grabbed our bowls of ice cream and ran upstairs and collapsed laughing on my bed.

"They're going to flip a bitch when they wake up!" Tessa said a little too loudly and I covered her face with a pillow.

"Shh! You'll wake them up from their beauty sleep!" We broke out into another round of laughter which we smothered with our pillows. "Okay, some on, we need to get sleep so we can be prepared to die in the morning.

"Fine. 'Night Ari."

"Goodnight Tessa," I said as we slipped under the covers.

We woke up to shouting which wasn't very surprising.

"Wake up you damn rat! I know you did this!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Look at my face!"

"I'd rather not. It's too early for that." Tessa and I quickly got dressed and headed downstairs and peeked around the corner to watch. Yuki still had his head in his hands, so you couldn't see his, 'beautiful,' face yet. He sat up, but his hair was still in his face, but when he finally looked up, I think all three of us burst out laughing. Tessa and I fell over each other and were exposed while Kyo was too stunned for a moment to do anything, but soon joined us. Yuki looked lost, but then went into the kitchen. I could barely see him pull out a large spoon and look at his reflection.

"Time to run Tessa. You don't want to see him angry. Run!" we both bolted for the door. I barely saw realization cross Kyo's face as he knew who the culprits were. We hauled ass as fast as we could before we rounded a bend in the round and literally ran into Hikaru, Hikari, and Rin. Maiko danced out of the way and avoided being smushed. "Hey guys."

"Damn girl! Where's the fire?" Hikari asked from under me as we got up.

"Oh, it's almost here. Prepare to be amazed," I said with a grin. Kyo and Yuki came dashing around the corner a moment later, but we'd moved so they almost ran past us. "Hello boys."

"I'm gonna kill you!" Kyo shouted.

"Are you sure about that? Because that would ruin my whole day," I said in a calm voice.

"You're going to have to go through me, guy, before you lay a hand on Ari-chan's pretty head," Maiko said in an equally calm voice, but you could hear the malice in it, and Kyo paled a little.

"That's some pretty amazing art work you got there," Hikaru said with an approving nod, obviously trying not to laugh. It was then I noticed they were all carrying bags.

"What are those?"

"You'll see," Rin said with a smile as they all began heading back towards the house and we followed.

After Yuki and Kyo washed their faces off, we all crowded into the living room and my friends demanded I be situated in the middle. I was pretty sure I knew what was going on.

"Open it!" Maiko said, handing one of her bags to me. They were doing this again.

"Guys, I told you that you didn't need to do this last year, and the year before. I don't need so many presents. I don't need any, period."

"And you think we listened? Obviously you don't know us very well," Hikaru said with a smile. I rolled my eyes and opened Maiko's bag as she grinned. It was a new sketch pad, and I could tell it was one of the pricey ones.

"Ta da! It took me forever to pick out a good one."

"I would know. I was stuck with her," Rin said with a smile. They always insisted on getting me multiple presents just because they knew I hated my birthday. I'd gotten half the clothes I own from them. Maiko handed me a card which had an all of us drawn on the front, even Yuki and Kyo.

"'To our favorite bitch I mean bestfriend, Ari.' Aww, I love you too!" I said, reaching out to give her a hug.

"My turn!" Hikari said, handing me a wrapped box. I opened it to find a super cute outfit. "You're gonna be driving all the guys crazy in that!" I tried not to roll my eyes.

"Sure."

"Hey, don't doubt me. I figured everything out, it'll fit your body type and makes those pretty eyes pop," Hikari said with a smile. "I have one more." She held out another box, but this one was smaller. I tore off the wrapping and found a new set of drawing pencils in it. It was awesome! "Maiko and I collaborated on that one."

"Me next," Rin said.

"Why do I have to go last?" Hikaru complained.

"Because, youngest first and ladies first. Both say you go last. Deal with it," Rin retorted.

"Maiko's older than me."

"Yes, but I'm a _lady_, so too bad for you, you poor baby," she said with a sarcastic grin, and Hikaru finally relented.

"Here," Rin said, handing me a sparkly silver bag filled with purple tissue paper. I pulled it out and found a photo album. It was covered with denim like material on the outside and the pages were different colors as you flipped through. The first page was already taken care of; the first one was of the twins and I at their house with me squished in-between them as they each held one side of the camera. The next one was of me and Maiko at one of her bring-a-friend dance classes, both of us wearing leotards and large tutus and making sassy faces at the camera. The last one was Rin and I sitting on the swings at the park; I wasn't sure who had taken it, but neither of us was aware of the photo being taken and it looked really nice. "I bought the album, but we all pitched in a picture."

"You guys are the best, you know that?" They always tried to outdo whatever they'd gotten me last year and sometimes it got kind of crazy; they really were way too nice.

"I believe my turn has finally come," Hikaru said, and I raised an eyebrow at the jewelry box he pulled out.

_Kyo…_

It was irritating how they all knew about her birthday and she hadn't even bothered to tell them. She hadn't even wanted them to know, so all they'd been able to get her was a crummy cake.

What was even more irritating was this Hikaru guy.

"I believe my turn has finally come," he said, brandishing a small, rectangle jewelry box that looked pretty expensive. With just a look at the guy, you could tell he had money; with his pretty boy hair and pretty boy clothes and smile that looked like a smirk and belonged in some dumb ass boy band. "Open it."

"Really? I never thought of doing that." Ari said with a grin. She opened the box and her eyes widened. Knowing her, she probably just thought he was using the box out of convenience, like it was the right size for something, not that it actually had jewelry in it. "Wow, I-"

"Here, let me," he said, moving to sit in front of her and pulled a bracelet out of the box. It had a silver chain that looped around and through eleven cloudy white stones. It was similar in shape and style to Kyo's own and he began absentmindedly playing with it. Hikaru took the bracelet out and put it on around her right wrist.

Kyo couldn't tell if he was satisfied with her reaction or with himself. Either way, it was all he could do not to reach over and punch him.

"Happy b-day kid," he said quietly before retaking his seat. Ari's cousin quickly leaned over to get a better look at it.

"Hikaru, I think we gotta go," his twin said, looking at her watch.

"Aw, okay. See you guys later," he said and they both waved. They left to a chorus of goodbyes, and there was a knock at the door shortly after they left. Shigure and Ayame appeared out of nowhere to answer it.

"Oh yes, Arisu's right in here," Shigure said, leading her aunt in.

"Hi Auntie."

"Hey Auntie," her remaining friends said with matching smiles.

"Hello dears."

"Auntie, what are you doing here? I thought you'd be here to get Tessa later," Ari said, raising a brow and looking a little quizzical. She tended to do that a lot. He cousin started babbling in English, but she looked like she was begging. After placating her, Ari's aunt switched to a language he could actually understand.

"I was going to give you your birthday present yesterday, but your uncle and I realized it wasn't quite finished. Here you are, sweetie," she explained, holding out a plain white envelope. Ari's eyes widened as she took it and as she opened it, her expression went: surprise, excitement, confusion, realization, and extreme excitement.

"Oh my god! Auntie, thank you so much! This is amazing! I can't believe you did this!"

"It was my pleasure sweetheart."

"If you don't mind my asking, what is it exactly?" the damn Rat asked.

"Look!" Ari beamed, holding them in front of the Rat's face, but she was bouncing on the balls of her feet so it was more like waving. "They're plane tickets! _Four of them!"_

_Arisu…_

I would love to describe how I feel right now, but that would be pretty hard. The tickets were for Kyo, Yuki, Shigure and I to go to the U.S. with Tessa, Auntie, and Uncle Zack! That's like, a super big deal, and it would be really expensive. But I'd feel bad about it later.

"Why do ya need four plane tickets?" Kyo asked, obviously not seeing where this was going.

"Honestly, how stupid are you?" Yuki asked, and I gave him a look.

"Only stupid people are stupid enough to feel the need to insult others by calling them stupid, so think before you speak," Auntie chided. Auntie tolerated name calling about as much as I did, but she was better at handling it.

"I do believe I felt that burn from over here, Auntie," Maiko said, fanning herself. I'd almost forgotten her and Rin were still here.

"Thank you dear."

"To answer the original question, it's because we're going to America!" I exclaimed, holding my excitement in until the last four words. I noticed Shigure thanking my aunt and Kyo's surprised expression. "When are we going?" I was good at English, but I was too excited right now to try to translate it.

"It will be over your summer vacation," Auntie answered. "I would have done it sooner, but they were cheaper than I had expected them to be, and plane tickets aren't as cheap as they once were."

"Please, ma'am, you must let the Sohma family reimburse you and your husband-"

"Please, let me do something nice. I don't get to see my niece very often, so I don't get to do nice things for her often enough, so I must insist you let me do this," Auntie insisted.

"Thank you very much madam." I had a feeling Yuki was going to be her favorite. "I don't know how we'll repay you."

"Please, call me Auntie. And you're quite welcome dear," she said with a smile and a hand on his cheek. "Make sure to put those somewhere safe, honey. I need to go; your uncle and I are going sightseeing. I'll leave Tessa here. Bye, dearies!"

"Bye Auntie!" Rin, Maiko, and I called together as she let herself out.

"I think I have to go too," Rin said. She gave me a hug, then whispered in my ear, "Remember, let them help." She let go and smiled at me.

"She's my ride, so I guess I gotta go too. See ya!" Maiko said, hugging me too, before following Rin. Everything was quiet for a second.

"Well that was exciting."

**Okay, so I feel like a super terrible person for taking so long, but it's longer than most of my other chapters, so I hope that makes up for it. In case anyone still cares, I still have a poll up on my page about who you want Ari to end up with. You can vote twice and the choices are Yuki, Kyo, Haru, and Hikaru. Yuki is currently winning by one vote with six, Kyo has five, and Haru has two. No Hikaru love, huh? Yeah, I kind of expected that. What else did I need to say…? Hmm… Well, I think that's it. Bye! ~Stormy:3**


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